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LONG ISLAND 








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PUBLISHED ByTHE 
TRAFFIC DEPARTMENT 

LONG ISLAND 
RAILROAD CO 



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origlsianil Railroad 




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LONG ISLAND. 



Copyrighted, 1895, 
By the Long Island Railroad Co. 



AMERICAN DANK NOTE CO. 



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THE BE A UTIES OF 



LONG ISLAND 



"Island of bliss : amid the subject seas.' 



ILLUSTRATED 





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Issued by the Traffic Department of the Long Island Railroad. 



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INTRODUCTION. 



Long Island has at last gained the place in public esti- 
mation that it was entitled to hold long ago. We look back 
now half incredulous at the fatuity that led men and women 
of our eastern cities to make expensive journeys to remote 
and uncomfortable places, there to spend the summer. But 
it was always that way. The prophet, you know, is a long 
time getting honor in his own country, and the wild flower 
that grows beside our door-step is crushed under foot as 
we hasten out to do homage to the exotic that has just come 
into a forced and sickly bloom in the garden. So, Long 
Island has been biding its time these many years, but it is 
finally known and understood. People at last appreciate the 
beauty, the health, the fertility and the variety of Long 
Island. Variety ? quotha. Yes. We used to think it a sandy 
waste dotted with scrub oaks and mosquitoes, because people 
who have never been there used to tell us that was the 
kind of a place it was. Now, as a matter of fact, there 
is no equal surface of land east of the Mississippi that offers 
so much variety. Depend upon it, whatever your tastes may 
be, you will find a way to satisfy them within a few hours' ride 
of America's center of population. There are beaches and surf 
on the south side, bluffs and quiet water on the north, 
forests and lakes in the middle, wild moorland breaking pre- 
cipitously down into the Atlantic surges at the east ; you are 
reminded of the western prairies about Garden City, and of the 
idyllic farming country of Connecticut on the north shore. 
Are your preferences social ? The society of the new villages 
of summer homes and club houses is brilliant, resourceful and 
hospitable. Are you a hunter ? Here are ducks and deer a 




plenty. Fisherman ? This is your place for bluefish, bass, yes, 
and occasional whales, not forgetting oysters, clams and trout. 
Do you walk, ride or push a bicycle ? These long, straight roads 
will be a surprise and a delight to you. Are you an artist ? Try 
the Hamptons and the Shinnecock Hills. Do you .come as a 
settler ? Here are broad acres waiting tillage, here are lots in 
as pretty a cluster of parks as you will find in the country, and 
if you do business in town, here is frequent and reliable train 
service. Is it as a boarder that you come ? Very well, we can 

put you up in anything to 
your liking, be it $4 a week 
... farm houses or $5 a day hotels 
with every comfort and 
luxury known in the modern 
and difficult art of running a hostelry. You can, in brief, 
find whatever you want on Long Island; and if you want a 
great many things at once, there is no corner on earth where 
you are so likely to get them. 

The Island has a decided advantage in its climate, for this 
is a part of the coast where it does not hold true. that " there is 
plenty of weather but no climate." It juts out from the main 
land for one hundred and twenty miles into a sea that is quali- 
fied, yet not heated, by the Gulf Stream. The water is mild 
but bracing in summer, and in winter the temperature is 
materially affected by breezes from the warm current flowing 
northward along the edge of the submerged shelf of the conti- 
nent. The man who has never spent any time in the hotels or 
cottages of the south shore hears with surprise, if not with 
downright incredulity, of the cool nights there when people 
sleep under blankets, while folks in town are tossing upon 
uncovered beds, making sultry remarks about the weather, and 
hearing only the jingle of cars and rattle of wagons and other 
street noises instead of the rhythmic lullaby of the breakers. 
But thermometers and scientific sharps are true recorders of 
the facts, and they tell us that sultry, airless nights in August 
are practically unknown at these beaches after one goes far 
enough out to get the full benefit of the ocean winds, while the 
fancy temperatures of town are unattempted here. Occasion- 
ally in the day the mercury will run pretty well up in the tube, 
as it does inside of the Arctic circle, but the set of sun almost 
invariably causes a drop, and night brings sleep and- rest. 
During the summer hundreds of New Yorkers take cottages or 



engage rooms at these beaches and get through the warm season 
in comfort, going to business every day ; and it is character- 
istic of people who have fallen into this delightful habit that 
they prolong their stay when practicable, until the last horn 
blows. The charms of the island grow upon them year by year. 

As every one knows, who has glanced at the map, Long 
Island is, in shape, like a fish with its head toward New York, 
ready to take in the superfluous population of that overcrowded 
town, its tail wagging out in the ocean, its long flukes enclosing 
the lovely sheet of water known as Peconic Bay. The south 
shore is low and level all the way from Brooklyn to the Shinne- 
cock Hills, while the north shore is an almost continuous ridge 
from end to end of the island. The hill district is largely held 
by wealthy men who have laid it off into estates of generous 
proportions, while the south side contains many populous 
villages and watering places. The center is a farming belt. 
It looks sandy and the soil in fact is light, but it is rich all the 
same, and it is a fact that no such crops are raised anywhere 
else in the State as are cultivated in parts of Long Island. It is 
especially adapted in soil and 
climate to the raising of po- 
tatoes, corn, cabbage, onions 
and cauliflower. The or- 
chards are not many as yet, 
but the success that has attended the implanting of them 
justifies further expenditure and experiment in this direction. 
Small fruits are grown at a profit and the strawberry yield 
is especially large. As a proof of the value of the land it 
may be mentioned that one man in the town of Orient, 
away out on the northern fluke, a narrow belt between the 
Sound and Peconic Bay, has for years made a wide reputa- 
tion as a model farmer, on forty-five acres of land. He 
employs over twenty men and raises practically everything that 
can be raised in a temperate climate. Of course in such places 
as this, skill counts for a good deal, and system and industry 
are factors in success, but it is not to be overlooked that soil 
and climate are prime elements in the prosperity. 

Not so many of the population fish for a living as they did 
half a century ago. The reason is that more people come here 
to fish for fun. The whales are nearly all gone, and gas, 
electricity and kerosene have made the smoky whale oil effete 
anyway. Trout are raised in ponds belonging to clubs and 





enthusiasts. Off the coast menhaden are caught by the ton, 
but this has become a common-place industry. As to the 
oyster, scollop and clam fisheries they remain extensive and 
important. If there breathes " a man with soul so dead," or 
stomach so rebellious and dyspeptic that he does not experience 
a thrill at the mention of Little Neck clams and Blue Point 
oysters, some good island missionary should take that man in 
hand and discover for him what delicious bivalves really are. 

Beside the farming country 

in the center of the island 

there are immense tracts 

* v ' covered with pine and other 

evergreen trees, which have 

- ~ recently attracted the atten- 

Great South Ba^ . ~ . . 

^ tion of physicians and sani- 
tarians. It is noticed that in these forest districts the average 
of health is high and the average death rate is low. Some 
surprising instances of longevity have been reported hereabout. 
Persons with weak lungs were noticeably benefited by residence 
here, where they took in deep breaths of ozone and balsam 
with every mouthful of air. 

In these woods, too, the hunter will occasionally find a 
deer, and in the fall of 1894 more of these animals were shot on 
Long Island than in probably any equal expanse of the Maine 
woods. Indeed, the slaughter was so great it was felt that the 
law should exercise a sterner supervision, lest these animals 
should be exterminated altogether. But while there are deer 
and a fox or two, there are few troublesome animals, and the 
rattlesnake, which was once found among the unfrequented 
hills, seems to have made up his slow mind that he had struck the 
wrong part of the country. It is about ten years since he 
arrived at this conclusion, and he has held to it so faithfully 
that not a shake of his tail has been heard on Long Island 
since. When it comes to birds there is no end to them. The 
woods echo with their songs, they nest in old fruit trees about 
the farm houses, and are the best friends the farmer has in 
their destruction of the insects that prey on his crop. But 
aside from these domesticated birds that everybody ought to 
encourage, or at least to let alone, there are game birds in 
scores of thousands, and the pop of the shot gun is lively along 
the meadows when the killing season is on. 

It is to two causes that Long Island owes its present 



popularity more than to any other immediate ones: to the 
artists and the railroad. When the new school of painters, 
wearying of the bombastic, manufactured and labored methods 
of the old Academicians sought " fresh woods and pastures 
new," a few of them found the scenic and architectural condi- 
tions that had been their especial delight in Europe. They 
began to paint this scenery, with its simple foregrounds, its 
Dutch windmills, its clapboarded houses, its old burial grounds, 
its broad, green plains and pastures, its groves, its bluffs, its 
splendid surf, its brilliant beaches, its quiet lakes, its busy 
fishing stations, its fertile farms, its feeding herds and flocks, 
and these pictures getting into the exhibitions, and being 
reproduced in the magazines and illustrated papers made talk, 
and induced others to go and inquire what manner of country 
this might be of which the painters had made such favorable 
report. The people of taste ^-^^w-., 
who made these examinations '^ *^^|NP^^^yi@» 
substantiated the records of ^*~ T f J ^ = TT|f%T||^ 

the pictures, and other de- Twasfco^. I 

lights that the artists had not been able to put into their can- 
vasses — the delights of fine air, good living, fine boating, bathing 
and sport, persuaded them that this was ah ideal region to 
open up and settle in. 

Long Island is known to be unrivalled in many of those 
respects that invite settlement and encourage investment. New 
York owes more to it than the formerly important matters 
of Long Island cauliflower and Long Island eggs. Its citizens 
owe to this island much of health, much of pleasure, much of 
profit. In it and on it there are inducements to every class 
of people, from the busy husbandman to the unoccupied idler 
whose time is all taken up with thinking how to kill it. To 
this land of. health and beauty its people say, Welcome ! 





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HOW TO REACH LONG ISLAND. 

The western terminal stations of the Long Island Rail- 
road are in Long Island City, in the part of Brooklyn known 
as Bushwick and in the business part of Brooklyn, on Flatbush 
Avenue. The first is reached by ferry from James Slip, foot 
of New Chambers Street, from foot of 34th Street, East River 
and, when the tide of summer travel sets in, by annex from near 
the foot of Wall Street. The Flatbush Avenue Station is easily 
reached by several lines of trolley cars that leave the Bridge and 
Fulton and South Ferries, and by trains on the Fifth Avenue 
branch of the Brooklyn Elevated Railroad. The Bushwick 
Depot is intended for the accommodation of people who live 
in the Eastern District of Brooklyn, and is accessible by sur- 
face lines starting from the Broadway Ferries. At the Long 
Island City Station, which has recently been built, the waiting- 
room is of unusual size and the facilities for entrance and exit 
are unrivalled. The offices of the road are here. The Flat- 
bush Avenue Station is an airy, well-lighted, clean, attractive 
looking place, and not far from it are extensive yards and 
markets where the agricultural supplies of the Island are in 
part handled and sold. Brooklyn trains stop at the Bedford 
and East New York Stations. Needless to add that the tele- 
graph service, that of the Long Island News Company, and the 
mail and express facilities all along the line are complete and 
reliable. 




SHORE RESORTS NEAR TOWN. 

5? HE big cities of New York and Brooklyn were unac- 
countably slow in coming to a realizing sense of the 
advantages they had in the beaches right at their 
J doors. 

The people, when they wanted to see the Atlantic 
Ocean, went to Newport or Cape Cod or Nantucket 
ujpl^ or Long Branch. But one morning one man awoke 
K^^W to the fact that within a few minutes' ride of New 
Hfi^ York was one of the finest beaches in the world, the 
?^Jm\ beginning of a chain of beaches where the sand was 

M fine and hard, the surf just right, the water mild, the 

slope gradual, and the Manhattan Beach Hotel soon testified to 
the fact of his faith in the future of this beach. The Manhattan 
Beach Hotel is a large, imposing looking structure, facing full 
to the sea, and the music of the surf is in the ears of the 
guests as they sit at their windows looking out across the 
immense blue plain to the cloudy heights of Jersey, or as they 
loiter on the spacious and well shaded verandas listening 
perchance to echoes of the band from the music pavilion. 
A companion hotel, named the Oriental, because of certain 
architectural traits, was afterward erected at a little distance 
eastward. The latter is designed more for those who value 
strict quiet and who perhaps have brought their families to 
the water side for a fortnight or a season. Probably no hotel 
in the country is so largely patronized by representative people 
as the Oriental. There is hardly a day during the season but 
what the hotel register bears the name of many distinguished 
guests. Both hotels have broad lawns before them with beds 
of flowers and ornamental plants, and there are wide prome- 
nades with benches that never lack occupants in pleasant 
weather. Everything is done here to make the visitor happy 
whether his stay is that of a summer or that of an hour. The 
cuisine of the Manhattan is celebrated; that of the Oriental 
is equally so. There is a large bathing pavilion which is 
a lively place at any state of the tide. Life lines are set, inclos- 
ing ample space, and there are boats and boatmen for the rescue 
of those who have ventured farther than they intended to ; al- 
though occasions for the services of these prompt and stalwart 



young men are very infrequent, for the beach is not affected by 
the reckless class. The children have tents and shelters close at 
hand where they can make sand pies and forts and paddle 
barefoot at the edge of the water. There are also large build- 
ings where parties and picnickers can assemble, and where 
shows are provided in summer. The most brilliant and effect- 
ive of the shows in summer are the fire dramas that occur in 
the big inclosure at the rear of the Manhattan Hotel. Here, 
on a monster stage, with an artificial lake in front and vast walls 
of scenery rising above and behind it, are enacted spectacular 
pieces in which the actors are numbered by hundreds, instead 
of half dozens, and which are made especially brilliant with 
marches,' dances, games and ceremonies. Usually the close of 
the piece illustrates the fall of a city under siege, or the erup- 
tion of a volcano with tremendous effect, or a naval battle, or 
the carrying of a line of fortifications. The scene at such times 
is exciting. Crowds of actors fly from place to place seeking 
refuge from the missiles that are supposed to be hurtling about ; 
regiments of soldiers march and run hither and thither ; there 
are sorties of cavalry ; heavy detonations shake the air ; bombs 
whirl toward the sky, but instead of carrying destruction they 
burst into constellations of red, blue, green and gold, and bring 
out loud "Ahs!" of admiration from the crowd. The affair 
ends with a flight of bombs and rockets and an exhibition of 
set pieces that lighten the night for miles around and make the 
heavens dazzling with colored fires. The subject of Mr. Pain's 
firework drama this summer will be taken from incidents in the 
late war between China and Japan, introducing Japanese village 
life and a naval conflict with great effects of realism. 

It goes without saying that Sousa's peerless Concert Band 
— the famous March King, John Philip Sousa, Conductor — 
will be as usual the crowning musical attraction of the Beach. 
The question is often and naturally asked : What are the 
causes of the unprecedented success of Sousa and his peerless 
Concert Band ? They are easily discerned, and consist of many 
contributing aids. Among these are the great leader's thorough 
musicianship, and his uncommon executive ability ; his complete 
mastery over an organization of musicians consisting of the 
flower of their calling; his striking elegance and grace as a con- 
ductor ; his tact and felicity in ministering to the tastes of all 
classes of people, thus sending every listener homeward con- 
vinced that he has heard just what he liked best incomparably 



played ; his genius as a composer, and the dissemination among 
the people of millions of copies of his marches, which are 
played by bands and orchestras, on pianos, guitars, mandolins, 
banjos and hand-organs, whistled by street gamins, danced and 
pranced, hummed and sung by high and low throughout the 
world ; each of these myriads of copies of music being white- 
winged and music-attuned advanced couriers of the coming of 
their gifted author, whose inimitable interpretation of his own 
inspiring music by his peerless band, naturally everybody de- 
sires to hear and see — this desire creating a demand for his 
band which compels it to play (including matinees) over five 
hundred concerts per year throughout the country — (the band 
during the past year having included in its tours every great 
city between California and Maine) — this continuous daily and 
yearly concert-giving compelling constant rehearsal and drill, 
resulting in a perfection only thus attainable. These are among 
the obvious causes why this one and only purely concert band 
is meeting with such unprecedented success, and why its houses 
are packed whenever and wherever it appears by delighted and 
applauding crowds, which compel the obliging leader to double 
his programmes through their enthusiasm, and cause his hearers 
to leave his concerts regretting only that their pleasure could 
not have been still further prolonged. 

In addition to the band concerts in the amphitheater, 
visitors will be entertained with a seasonable diversion, which 
is an entirely new feature at the beach. Edward E. Rice's 
buoyant burlesquers, to the number of seventy, will present 
Barnet and Pflueger's mirthful and fantastic historical extrava- 
ganza " 1492," with all the gayety and glitter that characterized 
it during the great New York run of four hundred and fifty- 
two consecutive performances. It has been brought right up 
to date, and will be an ever-shifting kaleidoscope of song, jest 
and whimsicality, playfully satirizing every passing event and 
topic of the times. Among the well known and popular enter- 
tainers in Mr. Rice's company are Walter Jones, in his 
humorous portrayals of the bankrupt Spanish King and the 
affluent tramp of Madison Square, and Mr. Mark Smith, who 
has achieved great success the past season by his unique crea- 
tion of Isabella, the daisy Queen of Spain. Mr. Charles 
Bigelow, late leading comedian in another of Mr. Rice's com- 
panies, will be the royal treasurer, and Mr. W. H. Sloan has 
been secured for his original roles of the turbulent small boy 



and the amiable policeman. Miss Yolande Wallace, a charm- 
ing singer, will be the Infanta Joanna, and there will be a very 
large chorus and ballet, with splendor of costume and scenic 
embellishment. 

The recent strong interest in bicycle riding, which is shared 
by rich and poor alike, and greatly encouraged by the fine con- 
dition of Long Island's roads, has induced the management to 
build a bicycle track, a third of a mile around, in the rear of 
the hotel, exclusively for the steel and rubber steeds. It will 
be laid with cement and supplied with a grand stand that will 
doubtless present a brilliant sight on days when crack runners 
are in the ring. 

Still another matter of interest at Manhattan Beach this 
year is the Circus Carnival that will occupy the large and well- 
lighted building in which Hagenbeck's trained animals were 
exhibited last summer. The small boy and the small boy's 
father will be found there in constant attendance, no doubt, 
and the remarks of the clown and the bare-back riding of the 
experts will arouse the same laughter and enthusiasm as of yore. 

Eastward from the hotels the Island runs out into a long 
sand spit. 

Racing is another of the attractions of this neighborhood, 
and the track of the Coney Island Jockey Club in Sheepshead 
Bay — a pleasant village behind the beach — is one of the best 
managed and most popular in the country. It is one of the 
tracks that is patronized by society and not a shade of sus- 
picion attaches to any of its workings. The track grounds are 
complete, and are surrounded by a delightful forest, while cool 
breaths from the sea, only a mile away, temper the heats of 
summer. On the day when the Suburban Stakes are run the 
scene is one of extraordinary brilliancy and excitement. The 
same may be said of the Brooklyn Jockey Club, located at 
Gravesend, an organization of recent date, but one that has the 
entire confidence of the racing public. The races for the 
Handicap Stakes are the best known events at this track. 

Rockaway Beach, a long peninsula, is a continuation of 
the sandy keys that line the whole south shore of Long Island. 
Formerly it was exclusively the people's resort, and enjoyed 
some of the prestige that has since been diverted to West 
Brighton. It is, however, as popular to-day as it ever was, 
and was never more largely patronized. One finds in opera- 
tion the concert halls, dancing pavilions, chowder booths, 



peep shows and merry-go-rounds that made the multitude 
happy three decades ago. The attempt to make the place 
yet more popular by providing the largest hotel in the world 
was a failure, for the owners of the hotel quarreled and it 
was never opened. As soon as it was torn down the land on 
which it stood and much of the adjacent property passed into 
the hands of a park company, and on the villa sites that were 
then staked off a great many desirable homes and summer cot- 
tages have been erected, and the character of the beach, except 
in the limited area alluded to, has radically changed. It is no 
longer a place of noise and hurrah, but a quiet and healthful 




Ar*ver*f\e. E>ed,cK . 



HOTEL AKVEKNE. 



spot, with a fine outlook across the lower bay, clean bathing in 
an invigorating surf, and pleasant lawns and gardens. Experts 
in old Indian nomenclature say that Rockaway is short for 
Rekanawohaha, which signifies "our place of laughing waters ;" 
yet the waters as often chime and roll and thunder as they 
laugh. It was at Rockaway that John Henry Sharpe wrote the 
poem that has been so ofted quoted, beginning 

On old Long Island's sea girt shore 

Many an hour I've whiled away, 

as though, being an island, this particular one would not 
naturally be sea girt. East of the part of the sand key that 
still carries the name of Rockaway Beach, is Arverne, a new 
and delightful settlement which enjoys a cool, equable sum- 
mer temperature and has lately assumed important propor- 
tions. It has a superb hotel with room for four hundred 
guests and a twenty-foot piazza extending around it. Every 
room commands a view of the sea so that one great geomet- 
rical difficulty has been solved to the admiration of all other 
hotel builders and keepers, and the consternation of the Great 

16 



American Kicker, who finds the occasion removed for the 
exercise of his constitutional and valued prerogative. Arverne 
is close to the water, but extends back to the breadth of the 
key and has been laid off into ample lots by broad streets and 
avenues on which shade trees are growing and which are already 
enlivened on summer afternoons by gay turnouts and by merry 
throngs of boarders and cottagers. Games for open air are 
everybody's employment, and bathing is facilitated by the 
erection of many bathing houses, public and private. Arverne 
has enjoyed a rapid growth within the last year or two, and 
it is one of the most attractive shore resorts on the coast. 

Ocean Park and Nameoke, lying between Arverne and 
Rockaway Beach, are promising places. Indeed, it is a 
matter of not many years when the entire key will be covered 
with cottages, and a social life as brilliant as that of Bar Harbor 
and Newport will be inaugurated. This would have been the case 
long ago, had not New Yorkers taken the too common notion 
into their heads that nothing could be of much value if it was 
so near home. Continuing eastward from Arverne we come 
to Edgemere where a superb new hotel, the Edgemere, has 
been erected during the past winter and spring. It is the latest 
addition to our summer resorts, is high class in all respects, and 
stands at a distance of only four hundred feet from the sea ; 
it will accommodate four hundred guests in comfort. This 
new resort is one of the most charming on the coast. 



m >f 




THE EDGEMERE. 

Wave Crest is another division of the Beach. It occu- 
pies a rise of ground that not only enables the settler or the 
visitor to enjoy a wider view than they get who see the ocean 
from its own level, but even a slight rise will sometimes suffice 



to secure fresher air on a calm or sultry day. The people who 
live at Wave Crest are well-to-do, and although the settle- 
ment is only about fifteen years old the neighbors accuse 
them of being just a little set up because of their age and 
social priority. The land all about the settlement has been 




WAVE CREST. 



parked with winding walks, shell roads, lawns, flowers and ponds, 
and is a little paradise. 

Bayswater is another division and very popular section. 
A more attractive spot on the coast can hardly be found. 

Far Rockaway is one of the older towns, and it really 
has quite a communal life and importance. It was a famous 







„ ■£>** 



LAWRENCE. 



watering place a generation ago, but lapsed into dull ways and 
was nearly forgotten after the Marine Hotel, which was 
the center of its life, had been burned. Recently it has re- 
covered its old prestige. In the season there are few livelier 



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/■<*-/<?*, vc'ss ..-->.« v.yr 



THE HOUNDS AT CEDARHURST. 



places. It is a place of shops and hotels and restaurants; it 
has schools and churches of various creeds, there is a court 
house, and the government of the place appears to be efficient. 
Withal there are few or no "frills," and one may go about here 
in a flannel shirt if he likes, whereas at Wave Crest, if he gets 
through the guarded gates of that exclusive settlement the 
flannel must be mixed with silk, and nobody will complain if he 
wears patent leathers. 



* -St- 

€ "S> ii 


£ •■■■■^■*s 


iff % iJm 







CEDARHURST. 
19 




Lawrence adjoins Far Rockaway, and has from the first 
appealed to a very desirable class of people who have lavished 
their own means without stint to make not only their own 
houses and grounds, but the whole village, beautiful. Certain 
fine old trees that formerly stood alone in pastures are now the 
ornaments of lawns, and where formerly there were rough 
and unkempt fields the land is all abloom with the rose, the lily 
and rare exotics. Indeed, the impression on first alighting 
from the train is that of having arrived at 
some of those winter resorts in the far south, 
where palms and magnolias 
wave in breezes that are faint 
with the odor of orange blossoms. 
The people of Lawrence are prop- 
erly proud of their gardens and 
schools, and they meet in their 
club house — oh, yes, they 
have a club here, along with 
the other modern improve- 
ments — and tell each other 
many nice things that they 
are justified in thinking about themselves. Fine, hard roads 
lead over the thick neck of land that holds Rockaway to the 
rest of Long Island, and enable the people to communicate 
with Cedarhurst hardly less delightful, though more distant 
from the sea, and with Woodsburgh and Fenhurst^ though 
these points are also accessible by rail. 

Cedarhurst is the seat of the Rockaway Hunting Club 
which has a spacious building here. It may be incidentally 
mentioned for the enlightenment of those who have heard much 
of Oakhurst, Pinehurst, Willowhurst and the like, that hurst 
means wood or grove. It is used instead of grove, because it 
is English. Cedarhurst is a place for private residence exclu- 
sively, and the word exclusively has its full implication here. 
It has its nucleus in a park of four hundred acres, with ten or 
a dozen miles of road and path winding through it, and the 
restrictions against things that would interfere with the privacy 
or pleasure of the inhabitants are rigid. The people of Cedar- 
hurst are mostly of the leisure class, but they work very hard 
with horses and at games. In spite of its distance from the 
shore it is said that the village enjoys a summer temperature 
perceptibly cooler than that of the cities almost within sight of 



it, and the same modifying cause, the sea, insures a winter 
average at least six'degrees higher than that of the same cities. 
The groves of cedar, pine, oak, maple and other trees that en- 
viron and impinge upon the property add to its health, its shade 
and its beauty. In addition to the fitments of the club house, 
which include a restaurant, post-office and games, there are, 
belonging to the community a gymnasium, stables, kennels, 
game preserves, polo grounds and tennis courts. The hunts 
and runs of the club are showy and much talked about, and 
the village is as lively as the town on the days of the meets. 
Working on toward the southern branch of the railroad we 
pass through Woodsburgh, named after a rich Brooklyn ite, 
Samuel Wood, whose wise and generous intentions with regard 
to his money and his land were for a long time nullified by con- 
testants of his will. The result of the legal troubles was to set 
the district back at a standstill and to destroy the charities and 




TO THE HUNT. 



benefits that Mr. Wood had devised. The large hotel was closed 
and a forlorn air pervaded the place. But recently the troubles 
have been settled and clear titles are given to all purchasers of 
lots. The result has been made apparent in a quick growth and 
in the erection of some delightful villas here. Some of them 
stand on Boulevard Avenue, Which is a hundred feet wide and 



shaded with the spreading branches of maples and other trees. 
A little to the northward of Woodsburgh is Fenhurst, a promis- 
ing village in surroundings of pleasant scenery and rich gardens. 

Long Beach is separated by the irregular waters of 
Hempstead Bay from the main island, but this, too, being shal- 
low, has been bridged by the railroad, and one is landed 
directly in the rear of the immense hotel and of the cottages that 
extend for some distance beyond it as annexes. During 
last summer the hotel was a sort of headquarters for an 
Association on the Chautauqua plan, and many conventions 
and meetings were held here. The cottagers are, however, the 
main stay of the beach, and those who have once summered 
here are the most eager to go again. The beach is clean and 
hard and has so slight a slope that one may venture out a con- 
siderable distance without losing footing. When a big storm is 
raging the spectacle is here to be viewed at its grandest. Fine 
boating and fishing are of course obtainable both in lively water 
and in the quiet bay. 

The plains, meadows, beaches and great hotels of the south 
side attract a large number of people. The bathing, boating, 
yachting, hunting and fishing are unsurpassed, and the excel- 
lent train service gives ready access to these points of interest 
from the cities. The porous soil insures freedom from malaria, 
and there is diversity of scenery in spite of the general flatness, 
because the woods form backgrounds and the northern hills 
peep into sight ever and anon. Antiquarians will be delighted 
at the quaint old houses and inns that abound among the 
villages, and many a housewife who visits this region alights 
upon treasures in the way of old china, tall clocks, brass and- 
irons and the like that money can hardly win away from her, if 
she has the good fortune to get hold of them. The roads are 
generally firm and broad and shaded with venerable maples 
and oaks. Although everything through the farming belt is as 
rustic as could be wished, there is none of the rustiness and 
drowsiness so common to the remoter country. The ex- 
penditure of money through the summer has been a good 
thing for the villages : they are better built, better kept, 
have better hotels, better shops and better schools than of yore, 
and are in all ways more suited for a summer sojourn. Not 
only on the south side, but in all directions the bicyclists can 
be assured of good roads and excellent accommodations at 
moderate rates at nearly every stopping place. 



In going over the southern line of the Long Island road 
the main track is left just beyond Jamaica and the train turns 
somewhat to the southward across broad and fertile farm lands- 
The first stop is made at Springfield. This, like all the other 
villages of the island, has awakened from its torpor and has 
taken on modern manners and appearances. It resembles the 
parks along the main line, and in fact, for six or eight miles 
one passes through a regular chain of parks, mostly lacking 
development as yet but, if well begun is half done no fault 
need be found with them. Restrictions have been laid against 
nuisances and offences of all kinds, as it is proper that they 
should be, and the people are so well satisfied with their 
little town that they have just spent several thousand dollars 
in putting up a new school house for it. There are pure 
springs here, and that is how it came by its name. One of 
the springs has been amplified into a sparkling lakelet. 

Rosedale — pretty name — is a new place that is in process 
of development. The place has schools and other advantages, 
not to mention its thick woods, its extensive views, its good 
drainage and its generous soil. A little farther we reach 




ON THE BAY. 



Valley Stream, the junction for the Far Rockaway Branch, 
with its colonial house or two, its modern shops and churches, 
its pleasant fields and groves, and its confidence in its own 
future. Although some of the trains go to Far Rockaway by 
way of Valley Stream, there is a direct line that carries the trav- 
eler from Woodhaven Junction across the shallow waters and 
marshes of Jamaica Bay. One may go by one line and return 
by the other, making a round, trip that is interesting and enjoy- 
able. There is a particular exhilaration in the ride on the long 

23 



bridge across the bay. One seems to be sailing rather than run- 
ning on rails. The water spreads out blue and bright on 
either side, but landlocked and still, and marshy islands tuft its 
surface. Along the shore are the huts of bay men who fish 
or rake clams and oysters or take hunters out a-gunning or 
fishermen out a-trolling. Boats dot the quiet lagoons, and 
quaint little settlements on piles, where one may wet his whistle 
or buy bait, recall the pictures of the early lake dwellers. 
There are several clear brooks, and throughout this section the 
notice of the journey er will be drawn to the little lakes, each 
with a margin of clear sand or pebbles and a pumping station 
at hand. These are fresh additions to Brooklyn's water 
supply. The man with a wallet full of names has been going 
through this country and putting some of them on the places 
that used to be called after cross roads, shopkeepers, or 
North, South, East or West Smithville, and the like. There is 
Pearsall's for example. They call it Lynbrook now, and it 
sounds better. It is not unlike Valley Stream in appearance, 
but there is more of it; and its hotels, restaurants, shops, 
offices, chapels, schools, nurseries and industries entitle it 
to some more distinctive name than Pearsall's. It is the 
junction for Long Beach. To the south, on the railroad 
to Long Beach, is East Rockaway, attractive for its boat- 
ing and fishing. Rockville Center is yet larger and more 
town like. Its industries and local commerce are consid- 
erable, its educational institutions grade up to a high school, 
which has a fine house of brick, and it is well supplied with 
churches. Though there are small hotels there are not many 
boarders. It is a place of homes, and probably if boarders 
were to go there they would fret because they were not far 
enough away from home to think they were having a good time. 
There is an average amount of human nature in boarders. 
The ground has a little roll as we go on, but it isn't enough to 
make anyone seasick. Lakes and reservoirs twinkle up out of 
the woods and fields like blue eyes whose lashes are trees and 
flowers. Then we see laborers cutting out new streets, 
and that means that we have got to Millburn which was 
Baldwin's once, but never will be again. The slender white 
spire of the village church looks across fields of green velvet, 
but clustered about it are shops and schools. Indications of 
growth are noted on every side. 

Freeport, a bright, happy, refined looking place, one of 




AT FREEPORT. 



those rare spots of earth that do not seem tojj>include any con- 
spicuous examples of poverty. It looks as if everyone owned 
his house and enjoyed living here, and maybe one reason why 
he does is that the oysters they gather just off here in the 
( xreat South Bay are ranked 
as the very princes of their 
species. The shops are large 
and well stocked, the schools 
and churches and societies 
are marks of pride, and when 
you throw in a dry bracing 
climate with ponds and 
brooks and shaded lanes, 
what more does one want ? 
There are two large parks in 
this village with many hand- 
some cottages in them and 
easy access to the bay has 
recently been made by means 
of an artificial water way. 
Leaving Freeport with some regrets the woods thicken and 
shut out the view for a time, though the cuttings that are made 
for Brooklyn's water pipes open vistas among the trees. Then 
we rather suddenly find ourselves among the red and yellow 
houses of Merrick, which are forerunners of others that will 
presently give a new character to the village. A model farm, 
a dairy and trout preserves are among Merrick's objects of 
interest, but the greatest of these is the camp meeting that 
is held here in the summer. The camp grounds are exten- 
sive, and during the season they are populous and are resonant 
with prayers, exhortations and hymns. 

Bellmore, sparsely inhabited, but wide and sunny, has a 
creek heading hereabout that vessels of fair draft can enter, 
and there is fishing in both salt and fresh water. The scent of 
bay and wild roses is in the air, and in the conservatories are 
cultivated flowers as well. Ridgewood, which was not much 
of a ridge and had no more wood than a number of adjacent 
villages, has received the Indian name of Wantagh, which 
sounds better, even if you don't know what it means. It has 
within a few seasons gained a shop or two, neat cottages with 
contiguous lawns, a school, a green-house, some lumbering 
interests and two or three villas of pretension. 



South Oyster Bay was another of those unfortunate 
names of a past generation that fortunately did not stick, 
because there is an Oyster Bay that is not south and that is 
away over on the other side of the Island. Now it is on the 
map as Massapequa, a name that can be rolled under the 
tongue and has sonority in it. It is divided between wood 
and farm, with a hint of marine associations, too. We get a 
sniff of sea air when the wind is southerly and can see the 
dunes across the meadows. Churches, schools, villas, a hand- 
some new brick station and, chiefly, a fine new hotel whose 
guests have ready access to salt water by means of the creek 
that runs back into the land to within a few rods of the hostel- 
ry, are among late improvements. 

Amityville is a place of about three thousand people — a 
town of a good deal of drive and go-ahead. It is partly sur- 
rounded by second growth forest with a purple line of hills away 
over in the north lined against the horizon and the bay close at 
hand on the south. Of the four or five good hotels the New 
Point is the newest and largest. It is lighted by gas and elec- 
tricity, and commands a water view from every side. The prin- 
cipal religious denominations are represented here and have 
their chapels and churches. Factories and shops have also been 
established in such numbers that the country character of 
Amityville is fast disappearing. On the north of the tracks 
may be seen the large buildings of a private asylum. A 
convent is also conspicuous in the place. The improvements 
in recent years have been the means of attracting many 
visitors to this enterprising place. 

When Lindenhurst was younger it was Breslau. It was 
settled by German mechanics who had been drawn here by the 
establishment of factories and who received homes and lots on 
advantageous terms. Hence it is but natural they should have 
named it after one of their own cities. Miles to the north the 
backbone of Long Island shows in a long line of dark color, 
while one has but to face in the other direction to see the 
gleam of the Atlantic, with white sails dotting the bay that is 
shut in from it by the sandy key and the pennon of smoke 
afar that denotes where some big steamer is plowing the deep 
on her way to the old world. 

And then we come to Babylon. Some of the trains for the 
south side do not pass through the villages just enumerated, but 
run through the central section and Garden City. The color of 

26 



strong yellow-green seen on a clear afternoon as one looks east- 
ward along this central branch is glorious. Where the pines thin 
down it is noticed that oaks spring in their places. Thoreau, 
whose sharp eye took in many things so common that nobody 
else saw them, has written on this natural adjustment of 
rotation in forest crops, and has named the squirrels and other 
wild animals as the seed sowers that bring it about. 

Babylon does not vividly suggest its ancient namesake. 
It lacks the roar and multitude, it has no bronze gates, its gar- 
dens do not hang, though it has a good many on the ground 
that are worth seeing ; still, it is big enough to talk of its north 




THE ARGYLE HOTEL. 



side and to brag of its fine hotels, its especially fine hotel, The 
Argyle, with its ornamental grounds and waters, its gas and 
electric lights, its eminent citizens, its village greens, its lake 
and its old mill, its churches and well appointed shops, its clubs 
and game preserves, its cool breezes and pretty streams that 
flow into the sea near this point after a brief career among the 
woods to the north. The vicinity has been compared with 
Newport and Nantucket and even with Florida, but compari- 
sons are odious if they are introduced to throw discredit on its 
own attractions, for which it is able to stand up sturdily. Out- 
wardly it resembles one of the old established towns of Massa- 
chusetts more than anything else, but there is not about it the 
coldness and formality, the lingering restraints of puritanism, 




that are complained of 
in those towns. No 
place on the island 
has more attractive 
homes, and a walk 
along the old post 
road, as it is still occa- 
sionally called, will be 
a revelation of wealth 
and taste. The West- 



minster Kennel Club brings to this 
region many people of social and 
sporting proclivities, and the display 
of fashion is worth looking at, 
while at the same time it has little 
or none of the snobbery and dis- 
dain that are peculiar to a limited 
aristocracy in New York, and that 
are apt to be carried into the 
favorite summer haunts of those 
people. At this point one can reach 
by steamer Oak Island Beach, a 
promising new settlement with its 
summer school. Near Oak Island 
are the headquarters of the 

28 




mm 




r 

'B»f " 



WESTMINSTER KENNEL 



Wawayanda and the Short Beach Clubs and Jessie Smith's 
famous " Armory." 

Babylon is the place of departure for the popular resort 
known as Fire Island — a curious, long sand spit that extends 
from east to west for the better part of forty miles off the coast, 
and that is at no part of its length over a mile wide. A few 
years ago it was purchased by the State of New York. At 
this place is the look-out from which incoming steamers are 
sighted, and the fact of their appearance telegraphed to their 
offices in New York and to the press. The hotel there has 
been in years past oneof the best known and best kept on the 
coast, and its fish dinners have been famous. You can stare 
up at the immensely tall light house with its electric beacon of 
23,000,000 candle power, the most powerful light in the country, 
and wonder how many miles it can be seen at sea and how 
many thousands of ships it has warned into safe channels. 
The bathing is fine, as it is everywhere along the south keys. 
A few miles east of Fire Island Hotel is the new settlement 
of Point o'Woods, which has recently come into promi- 
nence on account of its religious and educational gatherings. 
It has become known as the Long Island Chautauqua Assembly. 
Cottages and hotels have been erected and plans made for 
building improvements on a large scale. The location is 
delightful, and access is had by steamer from Bay Shore 
and Sayville. 

Once more the conductor cries ''All aboard ! " We resume 
our seats in the train and make a quick passage through a 
jungle where no doubt the bear and wolf lurked not so many 

29 



years ago, and' where nobody would be surprised to see a deer 
or a fox to-day. Then we emerge into a dry, healthy woodland 
with a sandy soil, in which we suddenly discover 

Bay Shore with its large hotel and several smaller ones, 
its churches where the good can find nearly any religion 
to their liking, its modern schools, its brick and stone shops, 
its parked grounds, its nurseries, and its ample roadways. 
Bay Shore has been rapidly losing its ephemeral character 
and exchanging it for stability. Land is not given away 
here, but it is not so expensive either that one can not 
afford to keep some of it about his premises. Its houses 




THE SOUTH SIDE CLUB. 



are hospitably schemed, with broad verandas, and spacious 
lawns. Some of the finest residences on the Island are to be 
found in this vicinity. Bay Shore is a deservedly popular 
place, and has in recent years grown with great rapidity. 
No finer drives can be had anywhere along the south shore. 
The roads are well made and are kept free from dust. The 
Olympic Club has an attractive place here, the Bay Shore 
Driving Park Association has large grounds, and indeed the 
country clubs are beginning to appropriate quite a little of 
Long Island. There is no part of the land where such a vari- 
ety of delights is provided with such access to the city. 

Islip is much like Bay Shore, with pure country air and 
cool breezes always obtainable. There is a large and wealthy 



summer population. Here we can take up our abodes in 
Stillinworth's famous Lake House or in other well kept 
hotels. If one wants to find out what can be done with an acre 
or so of ground in this vicinity, with occasional access to tne 
water with a fishing line or an oyster fork he is recommend- 
ed to read a little book from the pen of a sojourner on the 
Great South Bay, styled "Liberty and a Living." It is a 
book that ought to be put into the hands of the million 
poor of New York as a tract. 

An extensive forest of pine and young oak, with lakes 
dotted through it in silver shields, threaded by fine, dry roads 
that invite to wheeling no less than to walking and driving — 
and wheeling is a recreation for good roads only — brings the 
resort of Lakewood to mind. It is every bit as good as 
Lakewood, and to live hereabout imposes no restraints as to 
dress and deportment. Some of this wood has been bought 
by one of the Vanderbilts ; but a great deal of it is embraced 
in what is still called the Nicoll patent, and was granted two 
centuries ago to the ancestor of the present owner, who had 
been instrumental in the seizure of New York by the English 
after it had been settled by the Dutch. These lands have 
greatly increased in value within a few years, like all land on 
the island. Occasional openings in the wood disclose a dry 
soil, so that there is no malaria, while there is a sufficient 
covering of vegetable mould to insure a strong and ready 
growth, either of trees or of agricultural crops. Oakdale 
occurs in this wooded section, and it is known as the place 
where W. K. Van- 
derbilt has one of 
his summer resi- 
dences. Mr. Van- 
derbilt's stables 
here are believed 
to be the finest in 
this country, nat- 
urally, therefore, 
the finest in the 
world. Near here 
we find the South 
Side Sportsman's 
Club in handsome 
quarters, with its 







famous trout preserves and spacious hunting grounds. St. 

John's church in this place is one hundred and thirty years old. 

At Sayville many cottages are offered for rent during the 

summer. It is a cheery, roomy village, with winding roads lately 




improved, a large 
hotel, several near sayville. 

minor hostelries and boarding houses. The houses look like 
homes, and they are homes — they have come to stay. Much 
of the adjacent wood is placed under restriction by its owners; 
trespassing is forbidden, and fires are especially guarded 
against. Among the trout ponds that begin to be numerous 
as we ride eastward is one attached to the home and farm of 
Mr. R. B. Roosevelt. Not far away is Blue Point, and every- 
body who has had any gastronomic fun in this world knows 
what that means, for the name attaches to the finest oyster 
that grows. 



Around Bayport the woods open, so that we get inspiring 
glimpses off upon the hills, which once more recall the vast 
reaches of Colorado and Alberta; but the river cutting through 
the wood and reflecting the cool, green shadows of the trees, 
is something that the West does not afford to us. Hereabout 
are many visitors every summer, and the neighborhood is alive 
with excursion parties then. 

Patchogue, the nearest to a city of any of the south side 
towns, is built on a dry soil, though near the water, and is sur- 
rounded with wood. It is a clean, tidy place, with arbors, 
trees, gardens, lawns and greenhouses; yet it has quite a little 
of the city character, and its common, with a soldiers' monu- 
ment, its well stocked shops, its well kept streets, its pretty 
churches and its comfortable cottages, are worthy of many of 
the manufacturing centers that sport a mayor and board of 
aldermen. There are fully five thousand people in Patchogue, 
and the census for 1900 will doubtless show at least ten thou- 
sand. It has electric lighting and gas, the telephone service is 
excellent, the hotels are many and well kept, and the town is 
reached by fourteen trains a day. It is a fine place for boating 
and fishing, and the boat building industry is considerable. A 
good channel runs through the bay and, in the reasonable 




WRECK NEAR WATER ISLAND. 
33 



expectation of commerce, it has been made a port of entry. In 
the ponds and streams are many trout and other fish for those 
who prefer to whip fresh water for their finny game. Patch- 
ogue Lake, four miles long, is a favorite resort. Every one 
who has listened to a few of the aboriginal names of Long 
Island localities will recognize Patchogue as Indian. It is not 
the prettiest name in the world, but we are not to forget that 
there are more melodious ones here, such as Ronkonkoma, 
Massapequa and Amagansett. It has been suggested that the 
Indian tribes on Long Island must have formed their language 
on the sounds that they heard in the woods and among the 
marshes, and there is certainly a suggestion of frogs and tree 
toads in Quogue, Ponquogue, Peconic, Moriches, Speonk, 
Shinnecock, Sagg and Cutchogue. These names have charac- 
ter, however, and are far and away ahead of the namby-pamby 
titles that a few Philistines have tried to saddle on these vener- 
able places — names like Smithville, Jonesville, Juggins' Center 
and Johnson's Point. It is hoped that the time will come 
when the people will weary of these common-places, and if 
any names are to be changed a second time, that they will give 
place to the sonorous old Indian names again. 

Bellport stands on a height of land which is rather 
unusual on the south shore, and great development is expected 
here in the immediate future. Town lots have been staked off 
for several miles around the present settlement, and streets are 
not only cut but graded and planted with shade trees. It is 
only a question of time, and not of a long time either, when 
this, like many other pleasant spots on Long Island, will be the 
center of a large and well-housed population. The low pine 
forest that grows about here gives an impression of vastness. 
The bay at this point is three miles wide, and offers many a 
lively scene when hot weather drives the people from the 
cities. An enviable reputation for health and coolness has 
been secured by Bellport, and they show to the town man ther- 
mometrical records for the summer that make him doubt his 
eyes, for this is less than sixty miles from New York. There 
are several pretentious houses in this village, but what is more 
to the purpose, there are many comfortable ones. The hotels 
alone will house nearly two thousand guests. 

Brookhaven is invisible from the railroad. It lies over 
behind the wood to the south, in sound of the roaring of the 
ocean as it tumbles on the outer beaches, New roads are 



being pushed in all directions, and the effect of the deciduous 
trees against the dark walls of the pines is one that a Rousseau 
might delight to paint. Many little streams cut through the 
wood, falling slowly down the slope that stretches from the 
northern hills to the sea, and in these are many fish. The 
hunting of this district is famous, and probaoly more game can 
be shot here than at any other point within an equal distance 
either of miles or of time from the metropolis. 




MASTIC RIVER. 



Mastic, another half oasis in an Adirondack-like wilder- 
ness, is a sedate, rather sleepy spot, in the center of a wild 
country where the deer roam. It is an ideal resting-place for 
one tired of the town, with its everlasting ceremony and 
dress and its social obligations. The only obligation one feels 
under in a village like this is to get into harmony with nature, 
and enjoy himself after the manner of the natural man. An 
important advantage of life in such a place, if a man will be 
sensible, and go to bed at seasonable hours, and breathe pure 
air at night as well as by day, is the health it guarantees. 
Without counting the cities at the west end of the island, it is 
shown by statistics that mortality here is low. It seems almost 
unbelievable that in 1890-91, when the statistics were made up 
by -the census officers, the average of life in Queens and 
Suffolk Counties should have mounted to over sixty years. 




CAPTURED ON THE LONG ISLAND SHORE. 



The average of life is increasing, as any life insurance man will 
tell you; but its chances are still best out here where there is 
ozone enough, and where the air is sweetened both by vegeta- 
tion and the breathing of the sea. 

. MORICHES TO SAG HARBOR, 

Moriches is a place of more alertness, though there are 
orchards, pastures and cornfields here which look as prosper- 
ous as the houses. The village lies on the bay a mile from the 
station, and as there are three divisions of it communication 
is established between them by stage — a slow but inexpensive 
and picturesque way of travel that is still extant in odd corners 
of the island. The Hotel Brooklyn is a fine modern structure, 
and there are numerous lesser hotels and well-kept boarding 
places. Like most of the settlements along here, one com- 
mands from it a view over still water, which is most esteemed 
by those who have children that they are afraid will tumble 
into it; but it is a short and easy sail to the strip of beach that 
divides the inclosed water from the ocean, and here the big 
billows tumble with a roar that is like a summons. 

Eastport is another of the places that have come into 
new life in the last decade. It is laid off on slightly rolling 
ground that enables one to see not merely the still water of 
the bay, but that darker space diversified with distant sails and 
fringed with the smoke of European steamers — the space that 
ends at the white sands where the Atlantic surges eternally 

36 



thunder. You would know that you were near the sea now — 
you not only see it, but you smell it ; it is in the air ; it 
affects the thermometer; the vegetation shows it. The Long 
Island Country Club has set up its penates here; it could 
not find a better spot ; and the summer resident has left his, 
and more particularly her, impress on the village. Farming 
about here is remunerative, because it is skillful and scientific, 
and there is a considerable doing in the raising of poultry. 
The roads are so well drained that they do not stay muddy 
after rains. Several blue ponds, made by the damming of 
rivers, suggest trout and other toothsome members of the finny 
tribe, and from the train windows one looks across the larger 
of these ponds at the club house which has been mentioned. 

Speonk, a place that certainly sounds like the call of a 
frog, is a small village with a population which is nearly 





SUMMER SCENES AT MORICHI 

37 



doubled in summer when boating, bathing and other forms of 
country pleasuring are at their height. A fenny brook or two 
coursing through hollows of the land divides pastures that are 
half overgrown with scrub pines, to which the woodman's ax 
has lately been applied. There is a Presbyterian church here 
and several pretty cottages. 

Westhampton is the first of the several and famous Hamp- 
tons of Long Island. Here the bar thins away, and one may 




DUCK FARM AT WESTHAMPTON. 



drive right down to blue wacer. A dense wood concha's a part 
of the village from the track, and notice is drawn to it because 
there is someth'ng of a lumbering industry here. A broad park- 
way has been laid out to the beach, and clean, sandy roads run 
in several directions, promising agreeable drives and walks. The 
real estate boomers are at their work, and they feel a justifiable 
cor.fidence in the success of the : r schemes. There are Metho- 
dist, Presbyterian and Catholic churches, and a summer society 
that includes many professional men. Here is the old " Dix 
place " that was owned by General Dix, author of the order to 
shoot any man who tried to pull down the American flag. The 
farm is now the summer home of the general's son, Rev. Dr. 
Morgan Dix, of Trinity Church, New York. 

Quogue stands on ground that is agitated by long, slisht 
waves, the forerunners of the more broken Shnnecock Hills. 
The wood is more open, but the r gion is lonely. It is a game- 
haumed country, with small, 1 »cal habitations, and the fine white 
smd that one sees here and there indicates that the sea is not far 
away. A number of dainty cottages have been put up recently, 

38 




and there are many large boarding 

houses. The place has become famous 

for its bathing. A bulletin is put up 

daily at about the bathing hour, giving 

the temperature of the water, the state 

of the tide, and indicating the safest 

places for bathing. De Witt Clinton 

and Daniel Webster used to come 

here for the bathing and fishing and 

for the fish dinners, and their example 

is now followed by a number of city 

men. Crabbing is one of the local 

excitements. The old village character 

that so long pertained to Quogue is still 

maintained, in so far as the place is 

one of rest and freedom ; but it is 

more modern than it was when its 

first hotels were built, and the city ponquogue light. 

visitor need not fear that he will find himself hopelessly cut off 

from the comforts and necessities he has enjoyed in town. 

At Good Ground the prosperity of the farms and comfort 

of the old-fashioned houses seem to declare the name well 

chosen ; and it is believed that the attempt to do away with it 

and substitute one of those meaningless names like Smithport 

will fail, as it ought to do. Low hills, dark with wood, appear 

in the north, and the tall lighthouse of Ponquogue looms across 

the verdure on the south. Outside of the immeJiate space of 

settlement the 
country is as 
wild as Maine, 
but within the 
settled belt 
there is a pleas- 
ing sense of 
antiquity and 
content. Ifone 
stops here at 
any one of the 
well-appointed 
boarding places 
he will often be 
moved to walk 




CANOE PLACE INN. 



or drive a little to the north or east of the place and enjoy one 
of the most magnificent views on the Atlantic or any other 
coast. Indeed, as the traveler who has "done" Europe sees 
it, he is reminded more of the famous Bay of Naples than of any 
other spot. There is no Vesuvius in the distance, throwing up 
its lazy column of hot dust, but there is a reach of water as blue 
as that of Naples — the Great Peconic Bay, nearly landlocked, 
yet full of the strength and freshness of the sea. It is sur- 
rounded by hilly, wooded shores that break down in slides of 
silvery sand at the edge of the water, and the view in all directions 
is of noble breadth and inspiring character. 

The train slowly climbs the Shinnecock Hills after leaving 
Good Ground, and we find ourselves on one of the most peculiar 
and picturesque spots on Long Island. Its present and pros- 
pective vogue is due to the artists who discovered it, so to speak, 
and the result of their celebrations in paint and illustration has 
been the erection of a group of fine manors on the windy heights 
overlooking both the sea on the south and Peconic Bay on the 
north. At Canoe Place the narrow isthmus between the two 
has been pierced by a canal, and here has been erected an inn 
that reproduces in its architectural features the pleasant country 
inns of England. Needless to remark that it is much better 
kept than they are and sets a better table. An older tavern 
hereabout, which has been known to fishermen and sportsmen 
for a hundred years, and was a stopping place for British 
officers longer ago than that, has two big willows growing before 





SHINNECOCK HIL 

40 




From "Illustrated American. 



it that were started from 
sprouts brought from St. 
Helena ; and another notice- 
able exterior decoration is the 
wooden statue of Hercules, 
weighing over a ton, from the 
U. S. warship "Ohio. " Rev. 
Paul Cuffee, the last of the 
Indian missionaries, is buried 
near by, and hrre may be 
seen the little church where 
he preached, as well as the 
remains of an old fort erected 
in 1776. About ten years ago 
most of this property passed 
into the hands of an improvement company of wealthy men, and 
an immense rise in value occurred. Before that time the hills were 
accounted as absolutely worthless. That was because their value 
was gauged by their agricultural non-productiveness, and no ac- 
count was taken of air, surf, sport or scenery. About a hundred 
Shinnecocks occupy the little reservation two or three miles from 
here, and have homes and farms of their own. They would 
seem queerly out of place in their original estate were they to 
present themselves among these bare and windy hills to-day — 
their ancient hunting ground. In places the ground rises one 
hundred and forty feet above the sea, and where no villa is in 
sight one is forcibly reminded of the descriptions of the moors in 
" Lorna Doone. " If his imagination is still young and active, 
he fancies that he can see a band of the Doone robbers riding 
down the track ; but on closer approach the robbers prove to be 
innocent bicyclers making a "century run" back to Brooklyn. 
On over the sand, clothed sparsely with short grass and infre- 
quent clumps of bay and gnarly old cedars, we speed, with the 
ocean still in view on our right and on our left Peconic, a vast 
salt lake with scattered cabins on its shore, and presently the 
name of Southampton is called at the car door. We. have de- 
scended the dunes and are amid gentler scenery. The fields are 
broad and green, and have a look of long settlement that is not 
belied by facts, for the town was settled in 1640, soon after the. 
pilgrims had got to housekeeping at Plymouth. Job's Lane, 
still in use, was opened in 1663, and a few of the houses are 
more than two centuries old. A gravestone in the cemetery 



bears the date of 1686. The wandering stranger can put up in 
Southampton if he likes, but it is distinctly a place of homes, 
and its advance in population and condition is a gratifying token 
of the improving taste of the American people and their increas- 
ing appreciation of the benefits of a rural life, at least in summer. 
The largest number of lots and in the best places, along the 
shores of a charming lake, are owned by New Yorkers. South- 
ampton owes. much of its advance, in fact, to their taste and 
liberality. All the modern improvements to be expected are 
here, and there are several that might not be expected. Real 
estate values are nearly the same as in Brooklyn. Jn its archi- 
tectural features it rivals, if it does not surpass, any town in this 
part of the country. Whales are seen now and then off the 
shore, and last summer three of them were chased and killed by 
the old salts who still abide here, their carcasses — those of the 
whales, not the sailors — bringing in about $1000 each. It is 
good fun to get hold of one of these old fellows — a weather- 
beaten man of sixty, most likely, with a peck of whiskers under 
his chin that have defied the Atlantic gales — and after soothing 
him with a town cigar or possibly a tankard at one of the three 
bar-rooms in Southampton, to get him to tell tales of adventure 
on the sea and in " forring parts," in the days when the Ameri- 
can flag was seen in every sea and whale oil made small but 
steady fortunes. These veterans are now to be found employed 
about the boat-letting stations or in charge of yachts, and in the 
pay of men who never saw a whale or crossed blue water. The 
history of the town is honorable, especially in the list of its sailors 
and men of affairs. Before Commodore Perry had opened the 




WATER MILLS. 
42 



ports of Japan and started that empire on its career of civiliza- 
tion, it was a Southampton whaler, Mercator Cooper, who had 
put in at Tokio and paved the way to Perry's further action, by 
returning to their homes a company of shipwrecked Japanese 
sailors. From the window of the car, on the left of the track, 
may be seen the first of' several quaint old windmills that are to 
be found at the east end of the island. Later purposes and de- 
velopments are indicated in the commodious quarters of the 
Hampton Club. 

Water Mills is a pleasant farming district with an old 
mill and views in the open country and along the inclosed water 
that have been the delight of many artists. There are groves 
and plantations, and still along the north we see the wall of 
dark hills. 

Bridgehampton is yet another of these Hamptons, well 
nigh as perplexing to the stranger as the Haddams of Connecti- 
cut, a thrifty old village with white houses and white churches, 
and an old windmill that is a delight to the heart of the antiquary. 
It is near the sea, and is, therefore, cool and healthful; and from 
being a self-supporting population of farmers and fishermen, it 
has grown to be a summer resort of some size and account. 
Boarders and visitors find here a good library, with Methodist 
and Presbyterian churches, a hotel of good repute among more 
than the local population, and a new park around the settlement 
that has just sprung up along the banks of Georgica Lake. 

Now the road turns northward, leaving the sea and crossing 
the neck of land four miles wide that divides it from Peconic 
Bay. Presently a picturesque town looms across the meadows, 
and the iron horse stops panting after his long run, at the end of 
the line, in the ancient Sag Harbor. One doesn't hear as much 
of this old place as he should, for the tide of travel and the trend 
of interest has been toward the surf, and this town fronts on in- 
closed water ; but whoever makes a journey out on the island 
and omits Sag Harbor omits one of the best things on it. It is 
an old whaling town, like Nantucket and Portsmouth, and is as 
quaint as ihey. A century ago its tonnage was as large as that 
of New York, and half a century ago its income from the whale 
fisheries was close on a million a year. Old settlers will tell you 
that they can remember the day w r hen no less than sixty-three 
staunch whalers lay at their wharves or at anchor in their chan- 
nel, and the sailors coming ashore after voyages that sometimes 
continued for over five years, would spend their money as freely 




WINDMILLS AT THE HAMPTONS. 



as water, as it was always the way of seafaring men to do. Where 
are these old ships now? Alas ! some lie at the bottom of the 
sea, and even those who mourned their dead are at rest on the 
hill where, on the mossy stones, one still spells the names of a 
former generation : Tobias, Peleg, Eliphalet, Caleb, Jemima, 
Abigail, Deborah and Mehitabel. When the fisheries began to 
play out many of the ships and crews found occupation in carry- 
ing pilgrims to California, for the gold fever had set in strong; 
and having arrived there the crews were affected by the same 
disorder, and refused to return. Several of these noble ships 
rotted on the sands of that far-off coast ; and it is related that 
the bones of one of them were visible at the foot of a San Fran- 
cisco street until a few years ago. Sag Harbor is one of those 
towns that just happened. The cows must have made the 
original streets, and little attempt has been made to rectify them 
since. Except for the main thoroughfare, which is relatively 
direct, and is lined with good shops and hotels, they shoot off 
at all kinds of tangents and bring up in all kinds of unexpected 
places. This adds greatly to the quaintness of the place. Sag 
Harbor has gas, running water, schools, and one of the great 
Brooklyn bazaars has established a branch here. There is a large 
convent school, and all the leading denominations are repre- 
sented in the churches, one of which, the Presbyterian, stands on 
high ground, and is one of the architectural marvels of the land 
— a combination of Egyptian, Corinthian and Chinese that would 
be found nowhere else in the world, and that amply justifies 
itself by its oddity. There is a large watch-case factory and other 
industries here, and the immense piles of scollop shells along the 
water front look as if everybody had enough to eat. The sur- 
rounding scenery is delightful, with low hills clothed to their 
tops with vegetation and young woods, where the children go to 
gather wintergreen. Several handsome houses, with spacious 
grounds and conservatories, have been erected in the neighbor- 
hood of Sag Harbor, and a hunting and fishing club has bought 
a quaniity of land fronting on the water. Sag Harb >r was the 
seat of Indian settlements long ago, and there are a few remains 
of them in the mounds and kitchen middens that lie, for the 
larger part, in the yards of the citizens. Mr. William Wall ice 
Tooktr, of this place, has made a special study of the Long 
Island Indians, and has a large and interesting collection of relics 
that he has gathered and exhumed in this part of the island. 
Among these relics is the only primitive wooden paddle in 

4 6 



existence. The old houses of Sag Harbor easily bear out the 
appearance or allegation of age that the town enjoys, or endures ; 
but there is comfort and conservatism everywhere, and there never 
was a town where the people seemed to be so fond of flowers. 
The windows and gardens are full of them. 




TOLL-GATE NEAR EASTHAMPTON. 



EASTHAMPTON AND MONTAUK POINT. 

The railroad this year has been extended from Bridge- 
hampton to Amagansett. Easthampton of all the Hamptons is 
the most delightful. It is the home of many men of mind and 
influence, and among others, of artists who have painted its 
beaches, its shaded streets, its old windmill, its fruitful fields and 
its ancient but comfortable residences. The main street is of 
magnificent breadth. It was laid out when people did not have 
to think about real estate values. It is over one hundred and 
thirty feet wide and is lined with superb old trees. There is 
no beach in the world superior to the one here. The site of 
the town was visited before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, 
and the settlement was one of the earliest in this part of 
the country. The list of famous men who have gone forth 
from here, or who have made their homes in its delightful 
shades, is a long one. It must suffice to mention John 
Howard Payne, whose "home, sweet home" is one of the 
first places of the village that the visitor seeks ; Lyman 
Beecher, " the father of more brains than any man who ever 
lived;" Lion Gardiner, whose tomb is surmounted by a knight 

47 



in armor recumbent; John Alexander Tyler, Roscoe Conkling, 
Rev. T. De Witt Talmage and Thomas Moran, the painter of 
western scenery. An old cemetery, a sunken pool where it is 
said that the will-o'-the-wisp can be seen on still nights, the 
queer old Clinton Academy and the three Dutch windmills 
are things by which Easthampton is known far and near ; but 
it is best known by its refined society, its delightful and health- 
ful climate, its invigorating pleasures and its lovely setting. A 
little east of it, in a rich farming district, lies the tiny hamlet 

of Amagansett, 
and it is at this 
point that the 
most picturesque 
part of the island 
begins. If one 
has time he should 
by all means make 
the trip to the end 
of it about ten 
miles away, and 
probably before 
the season is over 
the railroad will 
be in operation. 
Montauk Point is 
unique; it is a 
long, bare peninsula, rising above the sea to a height of any- 
where from fifty to over one hundred feet, its surface rolling and 
in the hollows many pools where the water lily lifts its ivory star 
of perfume to the sky, and the air is also sweet with the spicy 
odors of sweet fern and hay. On the seaward side the hills break 
down into cliffs of gravel, often nearly sheer and thirty yards 
more in height, the billows at their bases lashing the w( 
grown bowlders which from time to time have fallen from 
heights. The remains of several good ships have strewn tl 
shores in spite of the ample warnings from the lighthov 
but the loss of life has been comparatively slight, as there is 
excellent life saving service here. A dozen years ago tl 
were but three houses in the whole twenty miles of the Pc 
but it will not be long before the region is filled with settl 
A village, parked and neatly built, has already been established 
far out where the winds come fresh from ocean and where 




BIRTHPLACE OF JOHN HOWARD PAYNE. 



48 



p. f tfl 



•^M-Wrn. 



W- 

&':&rs- ?m B 53 ^''-!' "Try 

- .11BP II - 1 i! ! 



CLINTON ACADEMY, EASTHAMPTON. 



imagination roves seaward, finding no land to the south on this 
side of the West Indies, and none to the east short of the 
coasts of Portugal and Spain. The land was long used as a 
cattle pasture, and whoever tramped along the trail here was 
liable to be startled as he rounded a sand dune or emerged 
from a clump of brush, at finding himself in a herd of cows 
with perhaps a fractious bull or two in their company. The 
great rolling plain of the Point is bright with sunlight, swept 
by every wind, and is exhilarating in spite of its loneliness. 
The old houses, about seven miles apart, offer their hospitalities 
to the belated or storm bound traveler, and on a pinch one 
might get shelter at the lighthouse, although Government 
desires that visitors shall not protract their visits until their 
welcome is worn out. The lighthouse is a tall, conspicuous 
tower of white, at the eastern extremity of the Point, topped 
with a powerful Fresnel light that sends its blaze in meteor 
flashes for twenty miles across the sea and land. Neat houses 
of the keepers have been erected near its base. The Indian 
has an eye for natural beauty, as western explorers know, and 
it was on this point that old chief Wayandance or Wyandank 
had his headquarters. Remains of his settlement may still be 
seen. There are harbors here with beautifully curving shores, 



and one of them, Fort Pond Bay, will one day become the 
scene of important activities ; for it is designed to shorten the 
runs of the great European steamers for the better part of a 
day by bringing them to dock here, instead of at Jersey 
City and New York. A great saving of time, both in the 
transportation of passengers and the delivery of mail and 
freight, would thus be made, and the time on the ocean ferry 
would be reduced to about five days, for express trains could 
be made to cover the one hundred and twenty miles from the 
bay to Brooklyn in a few hours. One leaves Montauk with 
regret. It lacks hotel accommodations as yet, though it will 
not lack them long after the arrival of the railroad, but the 
inducements to campers and yachtsmen are great. The air 
and scenery are superb, and the paean of old ocean never 
sounds forth with greater majesty then when it is rhymed and 
thundered against the bluffs of Montauk. 




MONTAUK POINT. 




A SUBURBAN DRIVE. 



SUBURBAN TOWNS. 



Trains going eastward leave Long Island City and Brook- 
lyn, the former a place of many industries, the latter a summer 
and winter resort of a million people who boast of their parks, 
the boulevards, their churches and their bridge. Assuming 
that the traveler is trying to escape from town, however, we 
will not detain him long. He will be pleased to find that his 
transit across the city is all above ground and past streets 
guarded from the track by fences and falling gates instead of 
through a dark and smoky tunnel, like nearly all the other rail 
approaches to the metropolis. Brooklyn covers more ground 
than New York, because few of its people live in flats and 
tenements; but the edge of the town is soon reached, and after 
the customary suburban spectacle of real estate signs and 
cemeteries has been offered, the traveler finds himself among 
green fields and pure air, and breathes deeper. To the south, 
or right, the land is level and stretches toward the ocean. On 
the north it rolls up into the ridge known as the backbone of 
Long Island, a range of hills that extend throughout its length. 
Ages ago the glacier that buried half of North America under 
thousands of square miles of ice, ended at Long Island, which 
indeed is composed of fragments torn from the New York and 
New England hills in the slow but resistless southward progress 
of the frozen mass. The remarkable variety of material found 
here makes the island no less interesting to geologists and 
mineralogists than its mode of deposit makes it attractive to 



artists and lovers of graceful scenery ; for the scenery has now 
no hint of chill and desolation. We enter upon rich, warm 
fields as soon as we are clear of Brooklyn, and directly we find 
ourselves among a congeries of new parks, pleasant places, very 
delightful to the man of moderate means, with perhaps a num- 
ber of children who need the educational advantages of the 
town, but who are the better for living in fresh air and having 
green things about them. These parks are restricted against 
nuisances of all kinds. Prices of lots are reasonable, and 
the train service is frequent. Morris Park, for example, 
has more than forty trains a day. A pretty place it is, and 

Richmond Hill is 
another, somewhat 
older and more se- 
date, and showing 
the result of longer 
residence in its 
broad streets and 
charming lawns and 
gardens, its neat 
churches and its 




tICHMOND HILL. 



homes, that are obviously the abodes of taste, if not of wealth. 
Superbly located, with sufficient elevation to secure perfect 
drainage and a magnificent view of the surrounding country, it 
has hardly a rival among suburban competitors. Everybody 
who travels by the Long Island Railroad has an eye out for the 
private parks at Woodhaven, with their beds of flowers, their 



ponds and bridges, their statuary and greenhouses. This region 
is filling up rapidly, and one does not have to be very old or 
reminiscential when he tells how he used to see the haymakers 
getting in their loads where graded streets now run,. and about 
apples growing where trim cottages and rows of houses stand. 

The first important stop after leaving Brooklyn is Jamaica, 
settled in 1656, and containing a few interesting relics of 
the colonial period. In the days when the Union Race 
Course was in operation near Jamaica, it enjoyed a national 
reputation, and its name appeared in the papers of the 
land at least as often as any other town three times as big. 
After the decline of its sporting interests it fell into apparent 
desuetude for a few years, but it is now a busy and fast- 
growing place of six thousand inhabitants, with three papers, 
churches of all denominations, fine shops, good schools and 
ready access to town. It has been selected as the site for 
a new State Normal School. Unfortunately for himself, the 
traveler who is ticketed to eastern stations sees very little of 
this town, for the railroad runs, for a part of its course, 
through a cut, and it is environed, as railroads are apt to be in 
such places, with shops, sheds, lumber piles, and the like. 
Jamaica is the railroad center of Long Island, for here the road 
forks to Brooklyn, to Bushwick, to Long Island City, to the 
main and southern divisions, and all trains for Oyster Bay, 
Northport, Port Jefferson, Greenport and Sag Harbor pass 
through it. Whoso lives in Jamaica has his choice of many 
pleasant walks, rides and drives in the neighborhood, and of 
cheap excursions by rail. Of course it has electric lights, gas, 
local surface cars, creditable public buildings, and all other 
things that make the town a modern and comfortable place of 
residence. To its very edge it has a sound and settled look 
which is different from the transition state of things on the east- 
ern edge of Brooklyn. There is a comfortable hotel here for such 
as have occasion to visit the place, and if summer board is wanted 
it can be had in a number of houses, for you are ten miles from 
New York, and the air is fresher than it is on the shores of the 
East River. 

Around Jamaica are many vegetable gardens, and people 
who cross the great Brooklyn Bridge late at night have met the 
huge covered wagons rumbling over that structure on their way 
to the markets, driven by the farmers, and laden with lettuce, 
cauliflower, corn, and what not. Long Island eggs are the 

54 



standard in near-by cities, and Long Island potatoes have the 
reputation of being the best grown outside of Bermuda. 

Hollis is an attractive place, where the houses stand at inde- 
pendent angles to each other, and are surrounded with generous 
yards and brightened by many posy patches. The Queen Anne 
style of architecture, that was so persistent about ten years ago, is 
still popular ; but its rigors have modified, and if a Hollis man has 
a fondness for some other style, say the colonial or even the plain 
modern American, the neighbors will not send out a vigilance 
committee to inquire about it. The driveway that runs through 
Hollis and takes the traveler upon the ridge to the north, opens 
up to his view a vision of rare loveliness, embracing ocean and 
earth, plain and hill, solitude and town, with the hills of Jersey 
seen through the incessant vapor and smoke that drift from the 
chimneys of New York — the incense that is burned at the altar of 
commerce and industry. The trees that were set out by the 
founders of the town have already acquired a sturdy growth, and 
are a delight to the eye and a refreshment to the sense on a warm 
day in summer. 

A little farther on is Queens, a village built upon a 
rolling and diversified surface more suggestive of the hill 
districts of places "up the State" than of what nine people 
in ten suppose Long Island to be ; for there are still a good many 
persons who imagine the island to be as flat as a pancake from 
end to end, and some who hold the notion that their grandfathers 
entertained, that it is a region of pine barrens. The old church 
standing among the cedars is quaint, and the athletic grounds 
close by the station seem to offer a promise of abundant sport. 
The local muscle of the place, however, is more immediately 
concerned in the building of houses and the raising of fruit and 
vegetables for the towns and for the satisfaction of the appetites of 
boarders in these precincts, the aforesaid appetites being daily 
sharpened to a wolfish edge by a bracing air and the salt flavor of 
the same. Long hills with sentinel trees stretch across the north 
to what seems an infinity of distance. They are the glacial mo- 
raine, the backbone of the island. At their feet begins the wide 
plain that spreads in a sheet of green to the south, merging into 
the marshy edges of the sea, and divided from the surf of ocean 
by narrow keys of sand with their many hotels and cottages, and 
an intervening lagoon of still water that extends for ninety miles 
with hardly a break along the outer or seaward side of the island. 
Holland is half suggested in the mellow gardens that we look out 



55 



upon, with cattle grazing contentedly in fat pastures, and more 
especially is it suggested in the windmills that are whirling in the 
breeze and raising water for the benefit of people and stock alike ; 
for it is one of the advantages of this part of the country that the 
water supply is unlimited, and that even in the driest seasons the 
wells and springs are little affected. Of course these windmills 
are not of the Old World pattern, though we shall see a few of 
them in the Hamptons. 

North of Queens is Creedmoor, a pleasant hamlet, near 
which is the most celebrated of American rifle ranges. National 
guardsmen come here to practise almost daily, and it has been 
the place where the great international matches have been held. 

Floral Park is a new village, and is what its name implies. 
The Hon. John Lewis Childs started it when he established his 
extensive nurseries and greenhouses here ; for Long Island is also 
known as a famous seed-growing country, and there is no reason 
why the business of flower-raising, that is pursued to such advan- 
tage in places along the Hudson and in Pennsylvania, a hundred 
miles and more from the metropolis, to which the best of the 
product is sent, should not be followed to still greater profit in 
these warm, even-temperatured plains within an hour's reach of 
the great city. Floral Park takes its name directly, perhaps, from 
the little park that is reached just before running in at the station, 
and that in the summer months is kept in an absolute glory of 
bloom. A little observatory that stands at the end of this park 
offers a view finer than one might suppose to be possible, consid- 
ering its height, and that, in the extent of the prospect, may truly 
be called grand. Many fine houses and cozy cottages have been 
erected here within a couple of years, and the little place supports 
a newspaper and a magazine. 

East Hinsdale is an enterprising community, where are lo- 
cated some of the most extensive seed and flower nurseries in the 
State. It is well worth a visit. Any one interested in horticulture 
will be well repaid by an examination of these gardens. Now we 
emerge upon the plains of Garden City in Hempstead, a township 
large enough for a county and fertile and pleasant enough to sup- 
port a population of thousands, yet as easy to reach from New 
York as many of the New Jersey towns that have been in the en- 
joyment of popularity for dozens of years without half as much to 
recommend them, either in natural resources, accessibility to the 
cities, or in cheapness of real estate. The center of interest in the 
township is Garden City, which was founded by the late A. T. 

56 



Stewart on land bought by him from the township, and designed 
as a place of abode for men and women of moderate means. If 
it has failed in some of the respects for which it was created it has 
gained in other and perhaps more important ones, for it is becom- 
ing a place of lovely homes. Imposing mansions show from the 
hills'; it has fine private schools, with ample ball-fields and other 
accessories of the modern institution of learning, while its 
exquisite cathedral, a miniature of the famous Gothic fanes 
of England, from its situation forcibly suggests that of Salis- 
bury. This beautiful building, while it does not vie in size 
with some of the more famous churches, is better worthy of study 
than most of those in New York. In its architectural scheme it 
is more finished and harmonious than most of them, and its situ- 
ation in a green park sets it off to advantage. Here, also, the 
bishop of the diocese has his home, and the services are of such 
interest and the music of such rare artistic quality that many peo- 
ple come here from the cities to attend church. The cathedral 
is, incidentally, the Stewart family mausoleum. Some years ago 
they used to call this part of the township the Hempstead Bar- 
rens ; but on looking out over the farms that have been opened in 
these levels, and in walking along the shaded streets with their 
many gardens, it is hard to understand why such a name was ever 
applied to them. There is something invigorating, however, in 
the breadth of view that is had, even from the streets. It costs 
about a hundred dollars to see the prairies of the West. You can 
get all the effects of vastness and impressiveness here for a dollar. 
It must not be forgotten, either, that there are few, if any, places on 
the prairies that offer accommodations so enjoyable as those you 
find here at the hotel in Garden City, with its baths, elevators, smok- 
ing and billiard rooms, steam heat, open fire-places and running 
water. The hotel has been greatly enlarged and improved in the 
past year, and is now one of the best suburban hotels about New 
York. Hempstead, which lies only a mile or so from Garden City, 
is one of the older towns, but it is fast growing back to a state of 
youth. The old houses that g ive it so much character are slowly 
disappearing or are being remodeled out of recognition, though 
the place retains and points with pride, as the political speakers 
have it, at the Episcopal Church with its communion service given 
to it by Queen Anne, the hotel where Washington stopped, the 
ancient town hall, the buttonball trees one hundred and fifty years 
old, and the houses that were standing during the British occupation 
of the place, which continued nearly throughout the Revolution. 



All sorts of modern improvements have been made in Hempstead, 
including running water, a high-class fire service with millionaires 
among the firemen, electric lights, macadamized highways, and 
its inhabitants are to have an opera house. Near here are the 
headquarters of the famous Meadow Brook and Farm Kennel 
Clubs, which number in their membership some of the best known 
society men and millionaires of New York. The place has five 
churches, two schools, two newspapers, six hotels, and a society 
distinguished for its vivacity and brightness. The first railroad on 
the island ran to Hempstead sixty years ago, and it was eight 
years after that the line was extended to Greenport. 

The main line and the southern division of the railroad are 
connected by a line running from Garden City to Valley Stream, 
on which are located West Hempstead, Hempstead Gardens and 
Norwood. 







frW^m - 



58 




GARDEN CITY HOTEL. 



THE CENTRAL SECTION. 



Leaving Jamaica on the main line of the railroad, we pass 
through the central belt of the island, which presents at every 
point scenery entirely different from that on either the north side 
or south side. 

Hyde Park is built up with modern houses, and a good 
many of them have gone up in the last few years. It is a pleasant, 
fertile and accessible village, as is 

Mineola, celebrated in this part of the country for its 
agricultural fairs, it being the seat of the Queens County So- 
ciety, whereat there is a great display of prize corn, pump- 
kins, potatoes, hogs and cattle. This is the center of a 
farming country that gave Long Island a good name in the 
old days. The soil is light but rich, and a good many nur- 
series and floricultural industries bear testimony to the fact. 
Mineola is a typical country village. The views out in the open 
are fine, and among the objects included in them are the needle 
of the Garden City cathedral piercing the sky on the south, and 
towers, windmills and villa roofs topping the hillside on the 
north. 

Westbury is a dry, healthy place, slightly rolling, a fine 
country either to farm, to tramp through, to hunt over, or just to 
own a piece of. Stabling seems to be a specialty here, and the 
roads are in good condition for bicycling. A new church and 
good stores will be found here, and back on the edge of the 
hills or on commanding sites on their sides are handsome villas 
and club houses. 



Hicksville has been so modernized of late that some of its 
older inhabitants would hardly know it if they were suddenly pre- 
cipitated into its streets after a long absence. Its factories have 
grown in number, size and output ; it has new chapels. and stores ; 

it is well lighted. 
Neat new cottages 
have been put up 
for workmen. Indi- 
cations of the extent 
of the seed and fertil- 
izer industries are 
saen near the rail- 
road ; but, after all, 
the things that please 
the visitor most are 
the wide, clean, 
shaded main street, 
and the healthy, 
thrifty look of things. 
Central Park lies 
in another splendid 
reach of farming 
country, across which 
the eye may rove for 




GARDEN CITY CATHEDRAL AND SAINT PAUL'S SCHOOL. 
60 



leagues from any slight elevation. Though a little place, Central 
Park has better shops and hostelries than many places of larger 
size, and its roads are a delight merely to look upon. Around it 
is a young pine wood, sweetening the air with balsamic odors; and 
as you continue eastward you find that for a space this gives place 
to an oak forest, clothing the low hills with green. In one of the 
well-attended intervals we come upon the northern and more 
sedate section of Farmingdale, with its churches, schools and 
factories, and presently enter the Comae Hills, among which is 
West Deer Park, in the tender green of sproutlands, with areas of 
older wood about them, and occasional gashes of black where the 
vegetation has been burned off. Some springs in this neighbor- 
hood were formerly esteemed for their supposed medicinal value. 







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THE MEADOW BROOK HOUNDS. 



There is space, the air is bracing, and the forest is large enough to 
give room for the hunter for weeks at a time. The forest thickens, 
the trees grow taller, and here and there among them we find the 
cuttings of old wood roads that were abandoned back in the six- 
ties and have long since grown to underbrush and weeds. 

Deer Park has begun to feel the stimulus of improvement. 
A company has taken possession of large areas of its land, and 
has begun to develop it in earnest. Houses of the old type are 
beginning to be deserted, but sound and attractive new ones are 
taking their places. 

Brentwood is the capital of the pine belt. For a long time 
it was known merely as a place of trim farms and gardens, nur- 
series and stock stables. Then rumors of its benefit as a 



sanitarium, in cases of pulmonary trouble, were repeated here and 
there, and presently people began to investigate for them- 
selves. Some who were of weak lungs found themselves 
benefited by a short stay, and many others whose lungs were 
perfectly sound found that it was an equally good place for them. 
The air, coming pure and strong from the sea and passing over 
a big tract of evergreen wood, is of the sort to put life into a 
mummy. Here are located two well-appointed hotels, the 
"Austral" and the "Brentwood." There is no more delightful 
place in the State than Brentwood, a town of homes with their 
gardens hedged by spruces and cedars, and the health-giving 
forest forming a barrier from the rest of the world. Although 
much of this forest is preserved against trespass by its owners, 
even where it is wildest, there is still room for the botanist and 
nature-lover to get away from the roads here and there. A 
pretty chapel, which has recently been built, is but one of the 
indications that the refinements and amenities of life are not 
forgotten in a district so seemingly remote and so purposely and 
desirably secluded. 

Central Islip, also in the pine belt, is an attractive, home- 
like district, while its schools and some of its churches form 
charming features in the landscape. Its fields are well fenced 
and well tilled. Eastward from the village one passes a large 
town of brick buildings, all substantially alike and spread out as 
if the land cost nothing. This is one of New York City's 
asylums, and the patients placed here for treatment show the 
improving effect of pure air and quiet. The land and buildings 
cost about half a million dollars. There are about three 
hundred patients. 

A bit of fenland, remarkable for its rarity in these parts of 
the island, is passed, and the train slows up at the village of Ron- 
konkoma, a long-drawn settlement whose farms merge into those 
of Waverly, partly owned by the Waverly Gun Club. This is 
good farming land, and the little red or white houses, often with 
the old oaken bucket hanging in the well before their doors, make 
as sweet a picture of peace and content as could be imagined. 

Ronkonkoma is the name of a lake about a mile north of 
the station that has the same name, and it has become one of the 
most deservedly popular spots on the island. It is about three 
miles around, is pear-shaped, and is supplied by springs that well 
up at the bottom of its basin, which is in parts over sixty feet in 
depth. Trees surround it and shade the lawns of cottages and 



homes that have been set up here, and the walks and drives of 
the neighborhood are delightful. The beach is of fine white 
sand, bordered with a road, and the water is of singular purity, 
while the picture that it reflects on a still morning, when the trees 




LAKE RONKONKuMA. 



droop their great branches toward its edge and the sloping banks 
seem to sparkle with daisies and other wild flowers, is one th.at 
the eye never tires of. The meaning of the name is "sand 
pond," and it sounds better than it means, for usually the old 
Indian titles were poetic. It is the largest body of fresh water on 
the island, and is fifty-five feet above sea level. For some unex- 
plained reason it has periods of recession and refilling that cannot 
possibly be connected with the tides. In its depths bass, catfish 
and perch are found, and on its surface many wild birds alight in 
their flight to the meadows or the shore. It has an atmosphere of 
its own that always seems to be cool and sweet, but the sweet- 
ness is doubtless that of the flowers that grow both wild along 
the banks and in the many gardens St. Mary's-by-the-Lake is a 
little church on the south side of the water, and within ready 
reach are the churches of various denominations. There is a good 
hotel, and the boarding houses are satisfactory. Of course such 
a thing of beauty as this lake has its poems, and has had its pict- 
ure often taken by the painters and illustrators and photographers. 
It also has its legend about a love-lorn Indian maiden in a phan- 
tom canoe, not unlike the one written by Thomas Moore about 
the ghosts of the Dismal Swamp. But no legend could make 
Ronkonkoma dismal. It is all bright and fair : a sapphire in an 



emerald setting. 



63 



Medford shows little of itself to the spectator at the car 
window, but the most careless passenger draws freer breath among 
these immense reaches of plain and wood — reaches so great that 
he wonders how the world can be called small when. Long Island 
is so big. A hunter, a recluse, an old-fashioned hermit could 
be as much alone here as St. Simeon Stylites or St. Kevin. 

The fields of Yaphank are next in view. Artists go to 
Holland and to Normandy and run risks of Roman fever on 
the Campagna to paint less attractive ones. Earth smiles in 
green, and the fine old woods in the background, cut by long, 
straight roads, seem to the stimulated fancy the abodes of nymphs 
and fauns and satyrs — the creatures with which the pantheistic 
Greek peopled his Vale of Tempe and that frisked in his vineyard 
in the moonlit night. Notice the queer old shingled house by the 
station. Of course you will notice the fine, large hotel to the 
north of the track. True, that hotel, so clean and hospitable in 
its appearance, is the county poorhouse ; but doesn't it look as 
if you could spend a summer there in comfort? Perhaps the resi- 
dents do. There is a small stream here, and more fens around 
Manor, with its ancient tavern and houses, its big ancestral trees, 
its new shops and improvements. There are two churches and 
a hotel, and board can be had in many of the farm houses at 
reasonable rates. 

Baiting Hollow lies among the hills and woods, though 
the forest is much broken ; for there are fine farms here, and the 
people who work them say it is the best soil for keeping weeds 
out of that they ever knew. Cauliflower, potatoes, cranberries 
and strawberries are standard crops. The woods include now- 
many deciduous trees, and white birches are frequently seen, their 
stems shining against the dark green of the pines. It continues 
to be a rolling country as we go on, but we see more water, 
and there is quite a bit of it when we come to 

Riverhead. This is more like a city than anything we have 
seen since leaving Jamaica. About three thousand people have 
their permanent residence here, and in summer as many more are 
added to the population as the hotels and boarding houses can ac- 
commodate. There are even more shops than a town of the size 
would ordinarily support — about fifty, it is said, besides lumber 
yards, a cigar factory, moulding mills and flour mills. There is a 
bank and schools, together with churches of various denominations. 
Navigation up Peconic Bay is feasible to this point, for River- 
head has considerable commerce in fruit and produce, and 

6 4 



is at least as well entitled to governmental consideration as the 
celebrated Cheesequakes Creek. The houses are well built, and 
seldom have the ephemeral look of summer residences. The 
streets are shaded, and in all directions the view, though not ex- 
citing, is full of grace and pleasantness. The ground surface is 
slightly rolling, hills rise along the horizon both north and 
south, and the shining, quiet water is in the field of vision from 
every high point. The holding of court and the annual recurrence 
of the county fair in this town afford enlivening days. The At- 
lantic is within an hour's drive of Riverhead, the Sound within 
half an hour, Peconic Bay about as far, and the clear sheet of 
water known as Great Pond within twenty minutes' walk. Flan- 
ders, a couple of miles away on the bay, may be regarded as River- 
head's watering place. There you may fish, shoot, row and bathe 
to your satisfaction. 



v 




65 




ALONG PECONIC BAY. 



The lovely salt water called Peconic Bay has attractions for 
some that the open sea does not, for there are many who prefer 
quiet bathing and safe boating to a tussle with the big rollers. 
After leaving Riverhead the train rolls out upon the north fluke of 
Long Island's tail, or peninsula, if you like. 

Aquebogue, the first settlement, suggests that its origin 
might be mixed Latin and Saxon, for water and bog are its bay 
front. It has an old church. The views over the bay are less 
inspiring from these low meadows than from the hills on the 
south side of the island, and from the rises of ground that will 
be met a little farther on. 

Jamesport straggles back on either side of the road to heights 
where old churches stand and houses peep through the trees. 
Gardens and farms extend in every direction, and there is just 
sand enough in the rich soil to keep it from souring and getting 
heavy. The town is one of the most popular places on the island 
in proportion to its size, and during recent years the boarders who 
have desired to come here have had to speak early. The hotels 
and farm houses have been sometimes crowded to discomfort, and 
this has led to a movement for the erection of cottages. 

Franklinville is a prosperous village for one that makes no 
noise in the world. Flower culture has been taken up in a 
modest way. 




PECONIC BAY, NEAR CUTCHOGUE. 

The modest village of Mattituck, with its charming water 
vistas, its good taverns and its sound old farm houses, is another 
comfortable place that is in present favor, and increasing in 
popularity all the time. A creek heads in from the Sound, and 
in it are many crabs waiting to be caught, while in both the bay 
and the sea are fish. Two hotels take care of the visitors, and 
the leading religious denominations have chapels and churches. 

Cutchogue is not large, but it is sightly, and is one of the 
chain of towns pierced by the long straight road that runs from 
Riverhead to Orient, and is accounted as one of the finest 
in the country ; for there is no excuse for not having good roads 
on Long Island, since the surface and character of the soil en- 
courage their construction. The drainage is good ; there are no 
ledges and beds of rock thrust up through the earth to make bar- 
riers that it is expensive to blast away ; the grades are never 
steep, except at the ocean's edge, 
and land is not so expensive that 
roads cannot be widened and im- 
proved when necessary. Indeed, 
as bicyclers know, the superiors 
of the Long Island roads are few 
in this country, which, as a land, 
has but just awakened to the 

6 7 




need and the economical sense of safe and solid highways. 
There are no more popular runs among wheelmen than those 
from the east end of the island to Brooklyn, or vice versa. Cut- 
chogue village lies about half a mile south of the track, among 
broad fields and young woods and paying farms. It has churches, 
a hall, an agricultural society, hotels and shops, and it has 
coolness and pleasing views. The broad, shaded street of 
Peconic puts one in regard for that old place before he alights 
from the train, and his liking increases on better acquaintance with 
its nice old houses. Peconic Park is a headland that juts out from 
here. Southold thinks itself the oldest, as it thinks itself one of the 
finest, settlements in this part of the world. Unfortunately for 
the claims of both, it cannot be definitely stated whether the first 
settlers landed at Southold or Southampton. Whoever it was that 
first came, it is known that in 1640 the people of Southold had 
obtained a formal concession from the Indians and had organized 
a church. Its two hundred and fiftieth anniversary was cele- 
brated with considerable eclat in August, 1890. It is a scattered 
place, with a populous center where shops, schools, churches, 
a newspaper office and other up-to-date appliances and benefits 
are to be found. So fine is the climate, with the winds coming 
from the sea whichever way it may blow, that you are pretty sure 
to meet one or two of those people during a summer's visit who 
will testify that Southold people may get to be old people, 
but they never die. Endurance is even shown by the houses, 
and there are two of them at least that are coeval with the 
foundation of the village. The end of the main line is reached 
at Greenport, a bright and agreeable town of three thousand 
people, who have most of the advantages of living that cities of 
five times that number can command in some other parts of the 
country. It fronts on Peconic Bay, with the wooded heights 
and tawny landslides of Shelter Island rising from the placid 
water. Though it is the end of the road, it has a commerce 
worthy of a railroad center. In the season boat communication 
is provided here with Shelter Island, New London and Sag 
Harbor ; and its harbor could shelter a navy, for it is said to be 
bigger and freer from bars than that of New York. The cottagers 
and boarders here come from New England and the West as 
well as from Brooklyn and New York. The hotels here are 
comfortable and long established. There are large shops and 
commercial enterprises. The main street is handsome and 
well appointed ; there are electric lights and water-works ; the 

68 



streets cross each other at a fair approach to the rectangular sys- 
tem. The churches are large and handsome ; the schools 
are efficient, and the new high school is a matter for local 
pride. Theatrical entertainments and lectures enliven even the 
winter here, and in summer, of course, much more is a-doing. 
Of the several marine industries of the town the one that is 

most obvious to the eye is the 
scollop fishery. Tons and tons of 
the shells, with crabs and starfish 
and other strange things mixed up 
with them, are piled on the beach 
about half a mile from the station. 
The boating, sailing, fishing and 
shooting around this part of the 




island are fine ; but the 
visitor should ' not leave 
until he has made the ac- 
quaintance of the Sound, 
behind the town. Follow- 
ing the northward extension 
of the main street, he presently 
comes out upon the top of a bluff 
of gravel, and has his breath taken away by the suddenness and 
extent of the view ; for he is standing eighty or ninety feet above 
the Sound, and it is spread out below him for ten or a dozen 
miles, straight across to the Connecticut shore, while to east and 

6 9 



west the sky closes down on the sea-line. Capes jut out from the 
bluffs that the traveler stands upon, and one of them bears the 
spire of Horton's Point light. At the sea's verge enormous boul- 
ders lie in chaotic masses, some of them as large as a house, and 
about them on windy days the water churns and froths magnifi- 
cently. The water is surprisingly pure, and the beach of pebbles 
is as clean as the floor of a Holland kitchen, and no doubt a 
little cleaner, for it is washed every few seconds. The prevalence 
of large pebbles of milky quartz is one of the peculiar features of 
the beach. They are as smooth as eggs and white as new-fallen 
snow. At high-water line masses of seaweed are found, and Ice- 
land moss can be gathered here. As sand beaches have their sing- 
ing sound under foot, so this shingle gives forth a curious tubby 
note as if one were walking over a cellar. A little westward from 
the terminus of the road is a smooth sand strip that is streaked 
with powdered iron and garnet, the blotting sand of our ancestors, 
and so rich is this sand that when it occurs in large quantities it 
can be worked at a profit. 

Orient, a town of a thousand people, is the last town on the 
Island. It is delightful in many ways. 





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SHELTER ISLAND. 

Shelter Island is reached by ferry from Greenport. This 
balmy land, that seems to float dream-like on the surface of the 
turquois sea, is really sheltered from the winds on almost every 
side by the inclosing capes and other islands, and the Indians 
called it "the island sheltered by islands"; but it is not to that 
circumstance that its name is due. The name commemorates 
the fact that it was a shelter for the Quakers when they were driven 
from New England by the intolerance of men who had left Eng- 
land to escape intolerance. Thanks to the lord of the manor, 
Nathaniel Sylvester, they secured a place to live, or at least to die, 
although Sylvester was not a Quaker himself. Whittier, the 
Quaker poet, has left a noble and beautiful tribute to his mem- 
ory. The present manor occupies almost the site of the original 
one, and is over a century old. It was occupied in summer by 
the late Prof. Hosford, of Harvard, who was instrumental in erect- 
ing a monument commemorating the landing of the Quakers so 
long ago. The island is of irregular form, and lies between the 
flukes of Long Island, as one writer has expressed it, ''like a 
nut in the jaw of a nutcracker." Viewing Shelter Island as it 
stands to-day, it is difficult to believe that it is practically but 
twenty years old. It was discovered, as it were, by the Method- 
ists, who planted a camp-meeting ground here. But while it was 
admirable for residence, it was at that time a trifle out of the way 
for the large number of people who desired to attend the meetings, 



some of them for only a day, and Merrick and th< 
New Jersey resorts, which were nearer and 
more accessible, in a little time took 
away the prestige of the place. 
But its fame had gone abroad, 
and it was not long ere cot- 
tages began to dot the fields 
and to peep among the 
groves. 

There is great 
variety of soil and 
contour on Shel- 
ter Island. 




Opposite Green- 
port it breaks 
sharply down to the 
water's edge in long, 
steep slides, and elsewhere 
are to be found shaded 
coves and clean beaches, where 
one may bathe in security or may 
take boat for voyages around the 
bay. The summer residents are 
people in professional life, and consti- 
tute a society that is unrivalled among the cities. 
Indeed, the society of the island has been choice, it 
formerly limited, from the earliest times. The old manor was the 





SHELTER ISLAND. 



scene ot many gayeties 
and hospitalities, and was 
regarded as an architect- 
ural wonder in its time. 
For the original structure 
bricks were shipped from 
Holland, as well as scrip- 
tural tile for the chim- 
neys, and the doors and 
windows from England or Barbadoes. Roses and other flower- 
ing plants were sent over for the gardens, and there is a box- 
tree, planted by the original occupants of the house, which 
is still flourishing, green and tall and strong; and perhaps 
the miles of box-hedge, old-fashioned and beautiful, to be 
found in Sag Harbor, Greenport and other east-end villages, 
came from that parent stock. A hawthorn hedge on the ground 
of the manor is of about the same date. The woods at that pe- 
riod were cut away to make hogsheads of their timber, for Mr. 
Sylvester was engaged in the sugar trade in the West Indies when 
the Quakers came to him begging shelter from his compatriots. 
It is recorded that George Fox, founder of their order, preached 
to the Indians from the front-door steps. Here, likewise, were 
tenderly entreated the unhappy Lawrence and Cassandra South- 
wick, who had been imprisoned, whipped and banished from 
Boston because their faith was not that of the Puritans. Their 
son and daughter were ordered to be sold into slavery, but the 
manly old sea captain who was charged with taking them to the 
markets of Virginia roared out a round of big D's that no doubt 



shocked the pious people, and refused the job. The elder South- 
wicks died in the manor, their last days solaced by the loving 
care of the only people they had found in America who seemed to 
be possessed of common humanity. It is of interest to know that 
Mr. Sylvester's rent for this splendid and fertile domain was one 
lamb a year, should the same be demanded on the first of May. 
It would take a whole sheep-yard to buy one lot there now. Con- 
spicuous on the shore is the great Manhanset Hotel, one of the 
handsomest and best appointed on the coast, and one that has be- 
come highly popular. Cottagers can take their meals there if they 
wish to avoid the troubles and anxieties of housekeeping. It has 
accommodations for 700 people, and its splendid frontage of 725 
feet on the water affords fine views. There is a Shelter Island 
Yacht Club, and the New York Yacht Club has a house there. 
The Shelter Island Association, organized to build cottages and 
improve the real estate at the location known as Shelter Island 
Heights, has secured a supply of pure spring water for the houses, 
laid out paths and roads, and established restrictions for the well- 
being of the community. It also erected a hotel, the Prospect 
House, which has a well-earned reputation. 

Robins Island, west of Shelter Island, farther in the bay, has 
been famous for generations as a hunting and fishing center. It is 
owned by the Robins Island Gun Club. East of Shelter Island, well 
out to sea, are Gardiner's Island and Block Island. Gardiner's 
Island is still in possession of one of the Gardiner family, to whom 
it was granted. His ancestor, Lion Gardiner, was the first man of 
English blood to settle in New York State. He bought this lonely 
tract from the Indians in 1639. It is a delightful spot with a fertile 




THE OLD HOMESTEAD ON GARDINER S ISLAND. 



soil and bracing winds that secure to the residents cool nights 
and comfortable days ; but until the owner decides to sell it — an 
unlikely event — the public will know little of it. The Squire's 
Hall is a venerable place, and among its treasures and curios are 
a silk shawl that was given to one of the Gardiner dames by the 
redoubtable Captain Kidd. The resident population of the island 
is small, not over a hundred people, and it is employed in the 
maintenance of the estate, in farming, gardening and the raising 
of stock. 




ALONG THE SOUND SHORE AT GREAT NECK. 



ALONG THE NORTH SHORE. 

The Catskill Mountains possess charms which are distinct- 
ively their own ; the Adirondack region has beauties which are 
peculiar to that wonderful country, but the attractions of Long 
Island are no Jess peculiar and no less entrancing to those in 
search of summer change and recreation. Variety is imparted 
to the scenery by the water. On the south side it is the grand 
old ocean and the Great South Bay, and on the north it is the 
Sound and numerous bays and inlets which indent the shore at 
various points and render the aspect of the country extremely 
picturesque. The tourist who visits the north shore of the Island 
for the first time is astonished at the boldness of the hills and the 



magnificent views of the Sound which are obtained from them. 
If his travels have previously been confined to the south side he 
will constantly compare the rolling country which he sees with 
the level districts nearer the ocean. It is this wonderful diversity 
of scenery which has made Long Island a paradise for the tourist. 
Those travelers who are only familiar with the south side can form 
no idea of the attractions which await them on the north. In the 
latter region tired people find rest and refreshment in riding for 




MOONLIGHT ON LONG ISLAND SOUND. 



miles along country roads, where every now and then they are 
treated to charming glimpses of the broad expanse of Long 
Island Sound, with views of steam and sailing craft passing over 
this great water highway. It may be a stately passenger steamer, 
or a ponderous freighter, or a long tow of coal barges which 
move so slowly that they scarcely seem to move at all. Beside 
all these are the trim sail-boats and yachts, which, throughout the 
season frequent these parts in great numbers and add to the 
picturesqueness of all water views. But if the glimpses of the 
water from the roads and elevated places are refreshing, what 
should be said of the delights of sailing along the shore of the 
Sound and now and then making excursions into the numerous 
harbors which are found for almost its entire length ? In this sort 
of recreation, the tourist who selects the north shore finds unend- 
ing satisfaction, and he can say most feelingly with Byron : 

" This quiet sail is as a noiseless wing 
To waft me from distraction." 

A short distance out from Long Island City the attention of 
the traveler is attracted to the large number of florist establish- 
ments which are located in the villages through which the train 
passes. The first station is Woodside, a suburban town of many 
attractions, and adjoining is Winfield, a place similar in character. 
Newtown is one of the old towns of the island. The Episcopal 
church is over a hundred years old. There are several hotels 
and boarding houses. A typical country place is Corona, with 
many handsome cottages. Less than a mile distant is Bowery 
Bay, a popular resort for excursionists. The country roads here- 
about are excellent for driving and wheeling. 

Flushing is the largest town on this branch of the railroad. 
It claims a population of 18,000 to 20,000 people. It is purely 
a residence town, there being few manufacturing interests 
centered here. The streets are wide and regularly laid out and 
thoroughly macadamized, making it a paradise for riding, driving 
and bicycling. There are many handsome residences surrounded 
with well kept lawns, and there are a large number of first-class 
boarding houses. The churches are as beautiful as any in 
the country. The town is not on the Sound, but access is 
had to it by Flushing Creek which forms a safe harbor for small 
sail-boats. There is a public park with a handsome fountain 
which is kept playing during the hot summer months, and a 
monument erected by the town to the memory of the volunteers 



who fell in the war of the Rebellion. Its accessibility to New 
York makes it a popular place in which to spend the summer, 
and a great many New York business men live there the year 
round. It is lighted by electricity, has a first-class water plant 
and an excellent fire department, a public library and many 
fine educational institutions. 

College Point is one and one-half miles from Flushing. 
The business part of the town is on a sort of a ridge and the 
residence district is on the northern slope overlooking the water. 
There are a number of very fine country residences here, and 
also a silk and rubber factory. In the vicinity of Whitestone are 
excursion resorts where Long Island clam bakes are the most 
attractive feature. Although an old town, Bayside has the ap- 
pearance of being a comparatively new one. There are many 
beautiful residences, and no better roads for wheeling and driving 
can be found. The town is the center of one of the finest 
agricultural districts of the northern shore, the soil is very fertile, 
and farming is the chief industry of the permanent residents. 

Little Neck Bay is a great resort for hunters and fishermen. 
Two fresh water trout ponds are near by so that the angler may 
have his choice between fresh and salt water fishing. 

Douglaston is but a few minutes' ride from Bayside. Here 
the country becomes more hilly. It is a small town, and is the 
home in summer of a great many wealthy New Yorkers. The 
roads are excellent for driving, and the country residences are 
very fine — in many cases palatial — and surrounded by extensive 
grounds overlooking the bay. Little Neck is a small village 
adjoining. 

Great Neck is the terminus of this branch of the road. 
It is fourteen miles from New York. The village immediately 
near the railroad is called Thomaston. The population of 
this part of Great Neck is largely made up of permanent 
residents who own their own homes and are for the most 
part business men in Brooklyn and New York. About 
a mile distant is located the village proper. The bluffs over- 
looking the water are high and commanding, and the tourist 
is treated to superb views of the water. Here ex-Mayor Grace 
of New York has a fine place known as Graceland. From 
Great Neck a number of exceedingly picturesque places are ac- 
cessible including Port Washington, Manhasset and Sands Point. 

The summer visitor, as he drives along the roads of this sec- 
tion, meets with surprises. It may be a tide mill which arouses 

78 




GRACELAND AT GREAT 



his curiosity or an ancient 
farm house which has shel- 
tered many generations ot 
tillers of the soil, but he is 
sure to find enough to keep 
him entertained in what- 
ever direction he may drive. 
Port Washington is a 
village in which many 
changes have taken place 
during recent years, and there is a quaintness about it which 
visitors from the city are sure to appreciate. Near here, too, 
is a location to which has been given the name of "The 
Marine Graveyard"' because of the fact that many noted vessels 
have been brought to it to be burned after they had outlived 
their days of usefulness. 

Along the highways of this section great quantities of wild 
flowers abound. Some of these are very beautiful. No section 
of the country offers such advantages to the botanist as does this. 
There is a vast variety of flowers and plants growing in the fields 
and along the roads which well repay examination by the student. 
The time by railroad from Great Neck to New York is about 
thirty minutes, and there are a sufficient number of trains to afford 



ample accommodations to summer sojourners. Abiding places 
may be found in the village and vicinity, and within a short 
distance of the great city the purest and most satisfactory of 
rural delights may be indulged in. At Sands Point magnificent 
displays of yachting craft can often be seen, and a view of the 
Sound when it is dotted o'er with these white wings is one never 
to be forgotten. The whole region through which the North 
Side Division runs is well worth exploration by those who are 
not yet familiar with it. Within its borders will be found villages 
which may be classed as suburbs of the great city, while others 
are almost as primitive as they were when stage coaches had not 
yet made way for the iron horse. 














s£ii5p£> 



ROSLYN TO OYSTER BAY. 

Travelers by the Oyster Bay branch of the railroad are 
treated to the two distinctive features of Long Island scenery. 
After leaving Jamaica they look out upon the level Hempstead 
plains, stretching out as far as the eye can reach, and then at 
Mineola the line turns sharply to the north and soon takes the 
traveler through a rolling country, where, in some cases, the 
elevations deserve the dignity of being termed hills. The 
extension of the road to Oyster Bay has afforded the searchers 
for inviting resting places during the summer a large number to 
choose from, and at the same time has opened up a region of 
country which cannot be excelled for romantic beauty. The 
principal points of attraction in this section are : Roslyn, Glen 
Head, Sea ClifT, Glen Cove, Locust Valley and Oyster Bay. 

At Roslyn a foretaste is obtained of the hills which abound 
along the north shore, and which are a never-ending source of de- 
light to the lovers of the picturesque. The village is in the valley, 
and possesses the attractions which visitors from the city most de- 
sire — refinement and comfort, and at the same time genuine rural 
flavor. The name of William Cullen Bryant is always associated 
with Roslyn, for here he made his country home for many 
years, and here he wrote some of the poems which have become 
famous the world over. Hempstead Harbor sets in from the 
Sound, giving to the village water privileges of great value. 
Summer visitors greatly enjoy the delightful quiet of the village 



and surrounding country, the many attractive rides and unsur- 
passed boating facilities. There is a commanding hill at the 
back of the village, which is the highest elevation on Long 
Island. From this position magnificent views are obtained of 
the adjacent territory. The wide expanse of the Sound shimmers 

in the summer sun, while the 
rolling country makes a pano- 
rama which is unexcelled any- 
where on the island. Beyond 





Roslyn is Glen 
Head, a picturesque 
and growing resort, 
and next is 

Sea Cliff, which has been cor- 
rectly named, for bold cliffs rise 
directly from the Sound, giving 

a boldness to the scenery which has made the place exceedingly 
popular as a summer resort. The bathing at Sea Cliff is ex- 
cellent, while the walks and drives are most delightful. There 
is a fine growth of shade trees which afford abundant pro- 
tection during midsummer, and the breezes from the water 
make the atmosphere agreeable during the entire season. 
This place was selected for a camp meeting site many years 



ago, but like other interesting localities on Long Island this 
feature has given place entirely to the uses of a summer resort. 
Beside the advantages already named, the boating is excellent, 




NEAR SEA CLIFF. 



and a great number of pleasure craft hail from this point during 
the summer season. There are many good hotels and boarding 
places, and the number of cottages occupied by city people 
is constantly increasing. 

Good roads lead to the village of Glen Cove, which has 
the appearance of a thriving town. There is a good deal of 
traffic in the main streets, while the manufactory of the Duryea 
Starch Company gives employment to a large number of 
hands. The Pratt estate is one of the largest in the village, 
comprising eight hundred acres, having a frontage on Long 
Island Sound and beautifully situated. Here is the Pratt 
mausoleum, containing the remains of the late Charles Pratt, 
who endeared himself to the residents of the village from 
the time he first located his country home there. He 
planned a model school building for the place, which was 
erected after his death by his sons, and was dedicated with 
impressive ceremonies on May 24th, 1893. The Agricultural 
Department of the Pratt Institute is located on the Pratt estate, 

83 




/<"; 



)YSTER BAY HARBOR — LOOKING FROM THE HILL. 



and here young men are given practical instruction in agri- 
culture. The estate of Hon. Charles A. Dana, known as 
Dosoris, adjoins the Pratt estate, and is known the world over 
for the remarkable collection of plants which it contains. Mr. 
Dana has laid the whole world under contribution, and has one 
of the largest collection of trees in existence. At Glen Cove and 
vicinity summer sojourners can enjoy refreshing breezes through- 
out the season, sail over the blue waters of the Sound to their 
hearts' content, drive over good roads through the picturesque 
country, and at the same time be within easy reach of the city, 
should necessity demand their presence there. All the resorts on 
this branch of the railroad are sufficiently near the metropolis to 
permit of going to business daily. Besides the boating, driving 
and bathing, there are plover and bay snipe for the gunner from 
July to December. 

Just beyond Glen Cove is Locust Valley, which possesses 
many of the advantages for the summer visitor which pertain 
to the whole district along the Sound from Roslyn to Oyster 
Bay. From this point a good view of the Connecticut shore 
can be obtained. The Friends' Academy here is a noted 
educational institution, drawing its patrons from various parts of 
Long Island and other localities as well. It was endowed by 
Gideon Frost more than a century ago, but has renewed its youth 

8 4 



from time to time and is still vigorous. Locust Valley is in the 
center of a rich farming country, particularly noted for the pro- 
duction of asparagus, for which the soil seems to be peculiarly 
adapted. The drives in this section are inviting. There is also 
good fishing and sailing. The Downing Vacation House, for 
the benefit of working women, is located here, and a number of 
deserving persons are afforded a delightful outing every summer. 
At Oyster Bay, the terminus of this branch of the road, the 
old and new meet in a most charming manner. There are 
several ancient landmarks, old dwellings, which remind the be- 
holder of the early days of the settlement, and then there are the 
smart new places which mark the era which commenced with 
the extension of the road from Locust Valley. But what the 
summer traveler is most concerned about is the magnificent 
bay which renders this place an ideal summer resort. Here the 
Seawanhaka Yacht Club has its handsome club house, superbly 
located at the entrance to the bay. The village has many 



^AJWJOlfclli iTiiu, 





fc 



— 




SEAWANHAKA YACHT CLUB. 



Ss 



attractions. Antiquarians will delight to trace out the history of 
the Quakers, and will find pleasure looking into the ancient 
history of the place. Prime, in his history of Long Island, states 
that several early attempts by the English to effect a settlement 
here were frustrated by the hostility of the Dutch, so that it was 
not until after the treaty of 1650 that any of these efforts were 
crowned with success. In 1653 a company often persons, prin- 
cipally from Sandwich, Mass., made a purchase of the Matine- 
cock Indians, and commenced a settlement on the site of the 
present village. When George Fox, the Quaker preacher, 
visited this country in 1672, he hurried hither in order to be 
present at the " half-yearly meeting." No finer drives can be 
had about Long Island than in the region of Oyster Bay. 





NORTHPORT. 



THE PORT JEFFERSON BRANCH. 

Sailing parties going out of Oyster Bay to the Sound get a 
good view of Cold Spring Harbor, stretched as it is about the 
shores of another bay or harbor, which takes the shape of an 
immense horseshoe. It is located on the Port Jefferson branch, 
which leaves the main line at Hicksville. The ride from the 
station to the village is about three miles in extent, and is most 
romantic and beautiful, passing three fresh water ponds which 
connect with each other and finally empty into the harbor just as 
the road reaches the main street of the village. This road in 
some places runs through a perfect arch of trees, and the shade, 
the singing birds, the view of the water, and the abundance of 
wild flowers, all unite to please the summer visitor. 

Cold Spring Harbor was once the seat of extensive whale 
fisheries, and many relics of these by-gone days remain. These 
consist of the buildings where the oil barrels were made, the 
mills which manufactured cloth for the sailors, and the store 
where the ships were fitted out for their long voyages. One of 
the principal fish hatcheries of the State is located here, and 
millions of young fish, the product of this establishment, are 
annually planted in the waters of Long Island and in other parts 
of this State. 

The Biological Laboratory of the Brooklyn Institute has 
recently become an important feature of life here during the 

8 7 



summer. This brings some of the most noted scholars of 
the country, who deliver lectures on various subjects in the 
biological course. This, with the large company of students, 
gives the village somewhat the air of a college town. Sum- 
mer visitors have always found the place exceedingly attract- 
ive, and there have usually been more applicants for board than 
could be accommodated. Good roads invite driving and 
bicycling, and the routes lead through regions which are a 
constant delight to the visitor. One of these is to Lloyd's Neck, 
^^ mmmma __ ki _ mmmiii ___ mm _ mm which affords a number 
of most delightful water 
views and glimpses of 
rustic scenes. When the 
beautiful harbor and the 
Sound, with its blue waters 
are seen, the words of 
Moore are recalled where 
he says : 

"There is not in the wide 
world a valley so sweet, 

As that vale in whose bosom 
the bright waters meet." 




COLD SPRING HARBOR. 



A favorite drive from Cold Spring Harbor is to Hunting 
ton, which is the next stop on the railroad. This village is a 
bustling place with considerable traffic. It has a bank, large 
stores, a street railroad and other signs of thrift and prosperity. 
The natural attractions are many. There are a number of bold 
hills which line the harbor, and remind the traveler of Sea Cliff 
and Roslyn. There are abundant opportunities for sailing and 
other aquatic sports, and in the village and in many cozy nooks 
in the outskirts of the town summer visitors are welcomed. A 
memorial to Nathan Hale, the martyr spy of the Revolution, 
has been erected by the public spirited citizens of Huntington. 
It was upon the shore near by that Hale landed on his perilous 
journey to spy out the British camps and fortifications on the 
western end of Long Island, and to carry this information to 
Washington. Hale fulfilled his mission, and was just about to 
embark on his return journey to Connecticut, when he was 
recognized by a tory, and his true character reported to a British 
officer, who arrested him and took him to New York, where he 
was hung as a spy, dying in a most heroic manner, and leaving 
a name which is dear to the heart of every patriot. There is a 
public library erected as a memorial to the men who gave up 
their lives to their country during the war for the Union. The 
first purchase from the natives was made by Gov. Eaton of New 
Haven, in 1646, and consisted of the neck which is now known 
as Eaton's Neck, where a Government Life Saving Station is 
located, and which is a romantic and interesting spot. The 
Academy at Huntington is an excellent institution, drawing 
many of its patrons from a distance. The quaint old structure 
occupied by the First Fresbyterian Church was erected in 1784. 
It is the successor of a church edifice which was built in 171 5, 
used by the British as a barracks, and destroyed by them on 
their evacuation of the town. The first Presbyterian Society 
was organized in 1665. There are a number of beautiful 
places at Huntington which have been laid out at great expense 
by New York and Brooklyn men, and new tracts are constantly 
being taken up for improvement and sale for villa sites. 

Centreport has .the same advantages that belong to other 
localities along the Sound wjjich have already been described. 
There are many summer sojourners who come back here year 
after year, and find no end of amusement in boating and 
fishing, and in driving along the well shaded roads which are 
to be found in every direction and afford many rural delights. 



Here are to be found genuine country scenes which denizens 
of the city so much desire. About two miles south of 
Centreport is Greenlawn, which is not less inviting than its 
name would indicate. It possesses hospitable farm houses and 
boarding houses, where tired workers from the city, in search 
of rest and recreation, can find entertainment. The same 
feature of rolling country which are peculiar to the entire 
north shore, is maintained, and there are any number of attract- 
ive points within easy reach. Beyond Greenlawn is 

Northport, which has one of the most beautiful harbors to be 
found anywhere on Long Island. It appears to the casual ob- 
server to have no outlet, but on more careful examination it is 
seen that the water sets in from Huntington Bay, the long sand 
spit formed by Eaton Neck guarding it well from the Sound and 
making it a secure haven. Years ago shipbuilding nourished 
here, and a number of trim craft were constructed which made 
records for themselves in the lines of trade as well as sporting. 
Vessels of considerable size have been launched here, and a 
number are still engaged in the coasting trade, while there is 
quite a number of vessels engaged in fishing, this occupation 
affording many residents of Long Island a livelihood. 

Kings Park is next beyond Northport, which is more 
familiar under the name of St. Johnland. The place first 
became popularly known by reason of the noble work of Dr. 
Muhlenberg, who established here a number of philanthropic 
institutions which have had a wonderful success, and have been 
the means of doing an immense amount of good. No section 
of country within fifty miles of New York is so admirably 
adapted for the purposes which Dr. Muhlenberg had in view, 
for the scenery is enchanting, the air during the summer is 
cool and bracing, and all of the surroundings are calculated to 
be restorative in their effects. These considerations moved the 
authorities of Kings County to establish at this place a series of 
institutions for the treatment of the insane, and to expend a 
large sum of money in laying out and improving a tract of 
nine hundred and fifty acres, which has become known as the 
County Farm, and has recently been transferred to the State. 
For a long distance in this vicinity well cultivated farms abound, 
and hither come many persons in summer who long for a spot 
where the contrast will be as strong as possible with their 
environment in the city. Here they find it. This is the region 

9 o 




RASSAPAQUE CLUB HOUSE AT SMITHTOWN. 



such as is often described as "genuine country" by those whose 
lives are spent in the crowded city. 

The section of the island which includes Kings Park, 
Smithtown, St. James and Stony Brook, comprises a large 
amount of excellent farming land, and there are many summer 
guests who come here season after season for rest and recreation. 
Smithtown is the home of the Brooklyn Gun Club, with a preserve 
of seven hundred acres, owned by the club, and a very much 
larger tract, which is leased from the farmers for the uses of 
members of the organization. The tract owned by the club 




THE OLD MILL Al 
91 



includes the old Theodorus Smith homestead, of Revolutionary 
fame, which has been twice rebuilt — once some thirty-five years 
ago, and again when the property was purchased by the club. 
In front of this house are two trout ponds, covering about twelve 
acres. These ponds, which are really but links of the Smith- 
town River, are well stocked with trout, and afford no end of 
sport. In this vicinity is located the Rassapaque Club House. 
It overlooks the Nissequogue River, and is one of the best ap- 
pointed club houses on the island. The next stop on the rail- 
road is Setauket, which is fifty-five miles ' from New York. 
Here are to be found a great number of attractions, including 
quiet bays, inlets and sheets of water tempting to the bather 

or those who desire a 
safe place for children 
to enjoy boating and 
fishing, and at the same 
time afford opportuni- 
ties for the bolder 
sailors to exercise their 
skill as mariners when 



Se- 



occasion requires, 
tauket is a watering 
place with w T hich it is 
difficult to find any fault, 
and it is just about far 
enough away from the 
city to lead the summer 
sojourners to forget the 

,1 • 1-11 J VIEWS ON THE SOUND SHORE, PORT JEFFERSON BRANCH. 

things which have vexed 

them, and thus leave their minds free to enjoy the rural scenes 
which abound on every side. A manufactory is located here 
which makes pneumatic bicycle tires and other rubber goods. 
Port Jefferson, two miles beyond Setauket, is full of inter- 
est to all lovers of the quaint and peculiar. It has long been 
noted for its yards for the building and repairing of vessels, and 
as many as sixty yachts are laid up here for the winter, as the 
harbor is unsurpassed for safety anywhere on the coast. It has 
been found to be almost mathematically correct in its rectangu- 
larly, and the bay, which lies in front of the village, is almost 





perfectly landlocked. Two arms, or spits of land, reach out 
from either side, and leave only a narrow but deep channel into 
the harbor of Port Jefferson. Many noted yachts, pilot boats 
and even larger craft have been built here; and during more 
recent years the crews of yachts have been shipped here and 
trained in these waters preparatory to taking part in the great 
races. The bold hills, which have been previously alluded to 
as peculiar to the north shore, are found also at Port Jefferson, 
and they contribute largely to the beauty of the place. This 
locality was called Souwasset by the Indians and Drowned 
Meadow by the English. There is a population of about two 
thousand, a number of churches, several manufacturing estab- 
lishments, well stocked stores, and other evidences of a prosperous 
community. A number of hotels and boarding houses offer 
entertainment to summer guests who visit this section. 

Beyond Port Jefferson is Oldfield Point, which abounds in 
beautiful water views, Mount Sinai, Rocky Point, Woodville and 
other villages which have their peculiar charms, and Wading 
River, the new terminus of the road, a place of beauty, and 
having large possibilities for its future growth and development. 




NEAR SETAUKET. 



93 



CONTENTS 



GENERAL INTRODUCTION . 





PAGE 

5-9 


RAILROAD SERVICE . 


• 


10 


SHORE RESORTS NEAR TOWN . 




n-i5 


SUBURBAN TOWNS 


. 


52-58 


THE SOUTH SHORE 




[6-46 


THE CENTRAL SECTION 


• 


59-74 


THE NORTH SHORE 




75-93 


PAGE 




PAGE 




PAGE 


Amagansett . 4S 


Gardiner's Island 


74 


Queens 


• 55 


Amityville . 


26 


Glen Cove . 


83 


Quogue 


. 38 


Arverne 


16 


Glen Head . 


82 


Richmond Hill 


• 53 


Atlanticville 


39 


Good Ground 


39 


Robins Island 


. 74 


Babylon 


26 


Great Neck . 


78 


Rockaway , 


15 


Baiting Hollow 


64 


Greenport . 


68 


Rocky Point 


93 


Bayport 


33 


Greenlawn . 


90 


Rockville Center 


24 


Bayside 


78 


Hempstead . 


57 


Riverhead . 


64 


Bay Shore . 


30 


Hicksville . 


60 


Ronkonkoma 


62 


Bayswater . 


18 


Hollis . 


55 


Rosedale 


23 


Bellmore 


25 


Huntington . 


89 


Roslyn 


81 


Bellport 


34 


Hyde Park . 


59 


Sag Harbor . 


44 


Brentwood . 


61 


Islip 


30 


Sands Point 


80 


Bridgehampton 


44 


Jamaica 


54 


Sayville 


32 


Brookhaven 


34 


Jamesport . 


66 


Sea Cliff 


82 


Cedarhurst . 


20 


Lawrence 


20 


Setauket 


92 


Central Park 


60 


Lindenhurst 


26 


Shinnecock Hills 


40 


Central Islip 


62 


Little Neck . 


78 


Sheepshead Bay 


15 


Centreport . 


89 


Locust Valley 


84 


Shelter Island 


7i 


College Point 


78 


Long Beach 


22 


Smithtown . 


9i 


Cold Spring 


87 


Lynbrook 


24 


Southold 


68 


Comae . 


61 


Manhasset . 


78 


Southampton 


4i 


Coney Island 


11 


Manhattan Beach 


11 


Speonk 


37 


Corona 


77 


Massapequa. 


26 


St. James 


9i 


Creedmoor . 


56 


Mastic . 


35 


St. Johnland 


90 


Cutchogue . 


67 


Manor . 


64 


Stony Brook 


9 1 


Deer Park . 


61 


Mattituck . 


67 


Valley Stream 


23 


Douglaston . 


78 


Medford 


64 


Wantagh 


25 


Easthampton 


47 


Merrick 


25 


Water Mills. 


44 


East Hinsdale 


56 


Millburn 


24 


Wave Crest . 


17 


Eastport 


36 


Mineola 


59 


Waverly 


62 


Edgemere . 


17 


Montauk Point 


48 


West bury 


59 


Far Rockaway 


18 


Moriches 


36 


West Brighton 


15 


Farmingdale 


61 


Newtown 


77 


West Hampton 


38 


Fenhurst 


22 


Northport 


90 


Whitestone . 


78 


Fire Island . 


20. 


Oakdale 


31 


Winfield 


77 


Floral Park . 


56 


Orient . 


70 


Woodhaven . 


53 


Flushing 


77 


Oldfield Point 


93 


Woodsburgh 


21 


Fort Pond Bay 


5i 


Oyster Bay . 


85 


Woodside . 


77 


Freeport 


24 


Port Jefferson 


92 


Yaphank 


64 


Franklinville 


66 


Patchogue . 


33 






Garden City 


56 


Ponquogue . 


39 







94 



The Great 

Mirror-Stone 

System. 



ALL RAILROAD COMPANIES 
SHOULD USE THIS SYSTEM. 



FIRST. — It is more expeditious, enabling the Engines 
and Passenger Cars to be put into service much 
quicker than any other system, and thus add to 
the revenues of their Companies. 

SECOND. — It can be used in a greater variety 01 
ways than any other system, thus meeting more 
completely the exigencies of the different shops. 

THIRD. — It can always be relied on under all con- 
ditions. Engines and Passenger Cars primed, 
surfaced and finished with this " System " will 
always present a better appearance than those 
finished with any other system. 

N. Z. GRAVES & CO., 
34 North Fifth St., 
u «* L.noo.0 Philadelphia. 

H. W. HARRIS, EASTERN MANAGER, I 

51 WEST THIRTY-FIFTH ST., 
NEW YORK, N. Y. 



COFRODE & SAYLOR, 



INCORPORATED, 



Civil Engineers 



Bridge Builders, 



PILE DRIVING, 

WHARVES, 

STORAGE WAREHOUSES, 

ETC., ETC. 



New York Office, 

Central Building, 

143 LIBERTY STREET. 



CARLISLE M'FG CO 

CARLISLE, F»a. 



MANUFACTURERS OF 



STEAM, STREET and ELECTRIC RAILWAY 

Frogs, Switches, Crossings, 

SWITCH STANDS AND SIGNALS. 

FREIGHT CARS OF EVERY KIND. 

FROG AND SWITCH WORKS RECENTLY ENLARGED 
WITH LATEST IMPROVED MACHINERY. 

VERTICAL ENGINES. 

U/m. Setyu/arzu/aelder 9 Qo. 

Nos. 37 & 39 Fulton Street, 

NEW YORK CITY, 



MAKERS OF ALL KINDS OF 



Desks and Office Furniture. 

Highest Grade and Lowest Prices. 

Important to the Owners of Horses and Cattle. 

O. DONELAN'S ENGLISH CONDIMENT contains no minerals, 
consisting of herbs costing only half a cent a feed. It keeps the kidneys 
regular, blood pure, digestive organs healthy, prevents disease, colic, 
etc., and completely builds up the constitution of the animal. The 
Long Island Railroad Company and many prominent stock owners have 
been using it for many years. « 

Our HOOF AND SKIN SALVE cures every disease of the skin 
and hoof. 

•;r Dr. 0. DONELAN & CO., Laboratory, 1 553 Park Ave., N.Y. City. 



Kalamazoo R.R. Velocipede and Gar Co., Kalamazoo, Mich., U.S.A. 




RAILWAY "SAFETY." 

Weight only 55 lbs. 

Ball Bearings, and 

made throughout 

similar to Road Bicycle. 



MANUFACTURERS OF 

Gasoline Motor 
Inspection Cars, 

Steel Velocipede Cars, 

Steel-Wheeled Hand Cars, 

Push Cars, 

Inspection Cars, 

Steam Inspection Cars, 

AND 

Metal Surface Cattle 
Guards. 

Send for Illustrated 
Catalogue. 




Weight, 500 lbs. 

Furnished with Patented Malleable Center 

Steel-tired Wheels. 



Established 1845. 'Phone, 234 Greenpoint. 

Jas. H. & Theo, L'Hommedieu, 

SUCCESSORS TO JOHN C. PROVOST, 
DEALERS IN COAL<9 

Masons' Building Materials and Blue Stone, 

office and yard: VERNON AVE. and NEWTOWN CREEK, adjoining bridge, 
LONG ISLAND CITY, N. Y. 

WM. BRODIE, Plumbing, Steam and Gas Fitting, 

31 & 33 VERNON AV., Long Island City. 

Hot Water and Steam Heaters ; Wrought Iron Pipes and Fittings ; 
Brass and Iron Cock, Valves, &c; Tin, Copper, Sheet Iron and 
Cornice Work ; Builders' Hardware ; Stoves, Ranges and House 
Furnishing Goods ; Locksmithing and Bellhanging. 

TELEPHONE CALL, 157 GREENPOINT. 

C. H. TIEBOUT & SONS, 

DEALERS IN 

HARDWARE, IRON AND STEEL, 

blacksmiths' supplies, and all 
kinds of wagon materials, . . 

31 Grand St. and 239 to 247 Kent Ave., 

Brooklyn, E. D., N. Y. 



Ramapo Wheel & Foundry Co 



RAMAPO, N.Y., 



MANUFACTURES 



Snow's Boltless Steel-Tired Car Wheels, 

| Chilled Wheels, in Hollister 
wmm Non-expanding Chillers, 

_j|||p Congdon Brake Shoes, 

Cylinder Packing Rings and 

High Grade Castings. 



BOLTLCSS FASTENING. 



Ramapo Iron Works, 

HILLBURN, N. Y., 

MANUFACTURE 

Ross and Ross-Meehan Brake Shoes, 

For Steel-Tired Wheels, 

Crossings, Switches, Automatic Stands, 
Yoked, Bolted and Spring Rail Frogs, 
Narrow Gauge Cars, Castings. 



When 

"Out on Long Island" 

And needing Paint, try the CHILTON. 
This is a Paint most carefully made with the 
best Linseed Oil; and in case you have never 
used it, you can find out its quality from 
plenty of people who are acquainted with its 
character. 

For Color Cards and prices inquire of local Agents, among whom are : 

M. G. WIGGINS, .... Patchogue, L. I. 

JOHN H. PHILLIPS, East Quogue, " 

CLOCK BROS., Islip, " 

H. H. HALL, Brentwood, " 

W. H. BENHAM, . . . Centreport, " 

WM. BRODIE, . . Long Island City, " 

EDWARDS BROS Sag Harbor, " 

J. L. VALENTINE, . . . Brookhaven, " 

SEELEY BROS., . . . Southampton, " 

D. KEESLER, Stony Point, " 

C. S. HARRIS, . . Shelter Island Heights, " 

B. A. GRIFFIN, . . . East Williston, " 

VAN TASSELL & SMITH, . . Amityville, " 

CHAMBERLAIN BROS., . . Sagaponack, " 

PACKER & SONS, .... Jamaica, " 

S. A. GREGORY & CO., . East Hampton, " 



OR SEND DIRECT TO 



CHILTON PAINT CO., 
No. 147 FULTON STREET, NEW YORK. 




£m$ 



